tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83193637923791911522024-03-13T04:35:17.027-07:00The Projector Has Been DrinkingThe Movie Geek Speaks!Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.comBlogger154125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-91834510510700829922023-12-25T11:24:00.000-08:002023-12-25T11:24:31.278-08:002023 and me<div style="text-align: left;">Sometimes at this point of the year, I get super-introspective. But this time out I'm tabling the philosophising for a different day. I reckon you can find plenty of deep thoughts elsewhere on the internet machine right now - too many at this moment it seems - thus if you came here, you really wanted only to immerse deeply in cultural arcana.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />Call it shop talk, call it inside baseball, call it compulsive wonkery, but this is what I do better than.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Ht8GiZ058L9ChExLaaHgnOfa3tUc7Ns_DZq_4N9lnqG1egF823ybsOJZwxr8khGwBFQstdUe5chaJcigzSSoe5yqrtLtc0HsMspmQUWCMgx_0P3vLt2I2_RtL4EmWkUbsQQujmnddB-KZBggeRh2nNNMOS6KXaR7hLcCNQjIV_uWuoHeMF834VYP0fw/s864/dexterlabwhyisittakingsolong.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="864" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Ht8GiZ058L9ChExLaaHgnOfa3tUc7Ns_DZq_4N9lnqG1egF823ybsOJZwxr8khGwBFQstdUe5chaJcigzSSoe5yqrtLtc0HsMspmQUWCMgx_0P3vLt2I2_RtL4EmWkUbsQQujmnddB-KZBggeRh2nNNMOS6KXaR7hLcCNQjIV_uWuoHeMF834VYP0fw/s320/dexterlabwhyisittakingsolong.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>All year long, I've been asked what I'm up to. And there have been two projects that I've thrown the bulk of my time and energy on. I was already hip deep in these two projects last year as well. I'm sure everyone has heard of how the business of the show is a "Hurry up and wait" process, and yes, I've had several instances of scrambling to get a task done, and then waiting seemingly months for the results. All the while, there's factors beyond that keep slowing things down. And after you've told your parents the same "to be determined" story for the fourth time, yeah, it's confounding.<div><br /></div><div>Thankfully, at least one of these is out of my hands, and within a few months, can be in yours.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4XHfwjk52y1moGZMWuqdomoBWGYZXfPtZpcorzNzdsjpFQTKrXOS2Ezm9x71WRq9BlEA8DgnwLIMd18GA1xB1aZUq1U8DZB76WIbOj8Vqm36fVJx1vlGvMGHsqlgR3T62-Cu-m5gKGQDzPzaRwjmIbm_aIsN6VcWxX2NT1Zp7fI3W2cMrROgTJ3NBrpo/s869/Hollywood90028presskittreatment.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="869" data-original-width="610" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4XHfwjk52y1moGZMWuqdomoBWGYZXfPtZpcorzNzdsjpFQTKrXOS2Ezm9x71WRq9BlEA8DgnwLIMd18GA1xB1aZUq1U8DZB76WIbOj8Vqm36fVJx1vlGvMGHsqlgR3T62-Cu-m5gKGQDzPzaRwjmIbm_aIsN6VcWxX2NT1Zp7fI3W2cMrROgTJ3NBrpo/s320/Hollywood90028presskittreatment.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>Over 20 years after she passed away in the shadows, 18 years after I first saw her sole feature film, and 8 years after <a href="http://projectorhasbeendrinking.blogspot.com/2015/12/christina-hornisher-alone-with-that.html">I became her de facto tubthumper</a>, I am extremely proud and pleased to say that the late Christina Hornisher will finally receive some flowers, as her long-hard-to-see artsploitation drama HOLLYWOOD 90028 will come to BluRay, its first official U.S. physical media release. And that I will have my contributions all over it, including a painstakingly revised essay on her career and my journey retracing it. The trust, counseling, support, and respect I've received from Bob Murawski and David Szulkin at <a href="https://grindhousereleasing.com/">Grindhouse Releasing</a>, Heidi Honeycutt and <a href="https://www.etheriafilmnight.com/">Etheria Film Festival</a>, the surviving cast who spoke on the record, and the people who loved Tina, has been rewarding. And seeing the film itself, in advance of this BluRay edition, get screened over the last year and a half to a sell-out house at New Beverly, and to charged reception in international festival settings, tells me that betting on this longshot was the right choice. There's no street date yet, but my <a href="https://shop.grindhousereleasing.com/collections/impulse-1974">Impulse</a> tells me you'll be able to have it in your hands by Spring.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN2HtYGJRZbi91et_5tTgaeXgsuPAQuAREfVlih_bCpuv_g84alu3uGvkTMtIDApwwYCq1IHamKuKtlyNm2dPtkWLR358BHfMqtVFJO9LEeQrS1zughpson7A24V0n4nwXmIskYCsIYbl3sKfwnGRxDO2e0igCujYvOzxtTyREBYaiUK_23LOg7Tl07EA/s714/funcityeditionslogo.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="714" data-original-width="713" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN2HtYGJRZbi91et_5tTgaeXgsuPAQuAREfVlih_bCpuv_g84alu3uGvkTMtIDApwwYCq1IHamKuKtlyNm2dPtkWLR358BHfMqtVFJO9LEeQrS1zughpson7A24V0n4nwXmIskYCsIYbl3sKfwnGRxDO2e0igCujYvOzxtTyREBYaiUK_23LOg7Tl07EA/s320/funcityeditionslogo.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><div>Meanwhile, I cannot as yet disclose what I am specifically working on for Jonathan Hertzberg and his terrific <a href="https://www.funcityeditions.com/">Fun City Editions</a> label. I can say that after years of correspondence that began from our mutual movie blogging, where we geeked out on the same minutiae of movie presentation most take for granted, it's been a thrill to engage with him in the elevated and significant manner that I have since he first launched the brand. I've been combing libraries, archives, collectors, and other less-visited venues, all in the name of creating a singular cinemanic experience in the home theater, and maybe beyond there as well. When you ultimately see what I've helped produce, I suspect when I ask you "how'm I doin'," you'll reply in the affirmative. Meanwhile, buy <b>all</b> the FCE BluRays. Especially <a href="https://thenewbev.com/blog/2019/04/smile-everybodys-a-star/">Michael Ritchie's SMILE</a>.</div><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>For the first time in ages, I am in the position to offer all the adjacent movie pick perks that became sadly sporadic in recent years. That's always a plus for me.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik1gbIGrEnq-UVtAmUO-6RDOJwOBT9GYu95lOeviVm7WIZc7KgqtX4p6i6zwFacWMDhTAU2bHrtQGeYmbEYgC1__e4JQMpqK1dfVFBWBOjAQaFSQFPy2PSHxFaennoyYv00xOJu0CO2g50HFV_MP0pxtw1L1wd6UagyME-jEBcl7CbQsUZWkJhsD1JlPU/s3804/mastersofthegrindposter.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3804" data-original-width="2550" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik1gbIGrEnq-UVtAmUO-6RDOJwOBT9GYu95lOeviVm7WIZc7KgqtX4p6i6zwFacWMDhTAU2bHrtQGeYmbEYgC1__e4JQMpqK1dfVFBWBOjAQaFSQFPy2PSHxFaennoyYv00xOJu0CO2g50HFV_MP0pxtw1L1wd6UagyME-jEBcl7CbQsUZWkJhsD1JlPU/s320/mastersofthegrindposter.jpg" width="215" /></a></div></div>Not just a standard Jury Prize, but also, in a sense, a Justice Deferred Now Achieved Prize, goes to Jason Rutherford's epic sprawling chronicle of exploitation filmmaking MASTERS OF THE GRIND. I was involved as a talking head and filmed my material a decade and a half before, and at least one interview subject I brought to the project (who, unfortunately, did not make the cut) has since gone to the celestial green room. Indeed several of the people you hear from in this film have left us, filmmakers and actors that, even in the geek revolution of zines and DVD commentaries, never got the chance to expound at length as they received in this documentary, and having their testimony captured for posterity is important. Four hours may seem excessive to devote to the rise, decline, and extended wake for grindhouse auteurs, but ya know what, you could say the same thing for Ken Burns devoting 18 hours to baseball; if you're into the subject, the time commitment will be worth it.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEuuaZkvo_TI07yaUgRRJR7xE3pbCeFvPOwYHmLhuYdEiemZN1pAuyRi8KdoZKVgRhg-7oi18iVkUhwZn0laLMcthLo8o_SIozU0CK-xDv3cKm69vpyPLNS5TScSd5fq1M6f1_Yo2mfzBt3XzieO8JenivqOs0G65Wm40fOgEQxu1F5_5xLHLK6PKJ32I/s328/spinninggoldblock.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="328" data-original-width="307" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEuuaZkvo_TI07yaUgRRJR7xE3pbCeFvPOwYHmLhuYdEiemZN1pAuyRi8KdoZKVgRhg-7oi18iVkUhwZn0laLMcthLo8o_SIozU0CK-xDv3cKm69vpyPLNS5TScSd5fq1M6f1_Yo2mfzBt3XzieO8JenivqOs0G65Wm40fOgEQxu1F5_5xLHLK6PKJ32I/w300-h320/spinninggoldblock.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>And the covertly-coveted Runaway Jury Prize I gleefully confer upon Timothy Scott Bogart's biopic of his father Neil Bogart, SPINNING GOLD. Maybe a better filmmaker with a bigger budget could have made a more dignified and well-rounded history of the maverick producer who shepherded three record labels and several iconic singers. But when you've got a a master of chutzpah and self-promotion as your topic, is that what you <i>really</i> want? Or do you want to get a high octane taste of how <b>he</b><i> </i>would tell his own life's story? No money for needle-drops? Fuck it! Actors who look nothing like the legendary artists they're portraying? Fuck it! Green screen work that looks cheaper than yr mom? Fuck it! SPINNING GOLD is the Bogart children giving their dad a victory lap, and as Bobby Heenan said, bragging isn't bragging when you can do it. And harp on its many flaws, with good reason, but I had way more fun watching this than I did with BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY or ROCKETMAN. <div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Ten Worthwhile Films Nobody Saw But Me</b></div><div style="text-align: center;">The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster<br />Cobweb (the Samuel Bodin one, not the Kim Jee-woon one...yet)<br />Earth Mama<br />Of An Age<br />The Outwaters<br />Polite Society<br />Rye Lane</div><div style="text-align: center;">Saturn Bowling<br />The Unknown Country<br />When Evil Lurks</div><p><br /></p><p>And seeing as you sat through all the self-promotion and the hot takes (and thank you for that), it's time to deliver the goods: the Top 13 of 2023:</p><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>13. ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnEIsqCH3RFmcgN37JIr5I1TCk51wy2e0Znva6Gpd3DJoEtnLqHGWdNfKjDNrwnmDUMgbFKImk9E0Ihs0S3jJjyFfy9E0YfyC9MQImhmSf47vgpJzdirJiI4oTu3BsTyaJGwoYLHh5S-N59L8HU8gZYjLbTkg2iEfIZObzRnUIApTZ3fQP5aHq-XIdTKM/s800/Are-You-There-God-Its-Me-Margaret-%E2%80%94-But-Why-Tho-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="800" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnEIsqCH3RFmcgN37JIr5I1TCk51wy2e0Znva6Gpd3DJoEtnLqHGWdNfKjDNrwnmDUMgbFKImk9E0Ihs0S3jJjyFfy9E0YfyC9MQImhmSf47vgpJzdirJiI4oTu3BsTyaJGwoYLHh5S-N59L8HU8gZYjLbTkg2iEfIZObzRnUIApTZ3fQP5aHq-XIdTKM/w400-h205/Are-You-There-God-Its-Me-Margaret-%E2%80%94-But-Why-Tho-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>12. MUTT</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8UtTsG3XUhv5eNhDrnhBbcHBIDTER28l6ReyxoC3VGprO7ax5g6lkH-ThgT1pAYf2UTg5KG_zcEJ8QIfVaKIs_uSR9IbcQqtvWcWsGVwtnX_NB9mV-IM3Rcev5Ttpdxsp_vi_1FbyEnJBa139XUSNE765lIc4f2x5rsfrM7s5BZbTB6WNpiVRIs9QLU8/s1333/Mutt-vuk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1333" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8UtTsG3XUhv5eNhDrnhBbcHBIDTER28l6ReyxoC3VGprO7ax5g6lkH-ThgT1pAYf2UTg5KG_zcEJ8QIfVaKIs_uSR9IbcQqtvWcWsGVwtnX_NB9mV-IM3Rcev5Ttpdxsp_vi_1FbyEnJBa139XUSNE765lIc4f2x5rsfrM7s5BZbTB6WNpiVRIs9QLU8/w400-h300/Mutt-vuk.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>11. A THOUSAND AND ONE</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8QCDJnIoPfdQeFTeWhUqtchBbKm0hqMqgqlwPu9aJ1uCFeZCFFzCg5gVSpbg3gK3o35YehCLVa3wiFeVBvrrJb5rlV5UPQC2LPhSsVn6AdU1kp236D_xZvOnvXO5gKtrN9kc4pzqqEL90nGAQOFjzBq1KSPC1ulCIvKy5eKHl2I6Si-gjUtzLCtX_1Mw/s708/athousandandone.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="708" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8QCDJnIoPfdQeFTeWhUqtchBbKm0hqMqgqlwPu9aJ1uCFeZCFFzCg5gVSpbg3gK3o35YehCLVa3wiFeVBvrrJb5rlV5UPQC2LPhSsVn6AdU1kp236D_xZvOnvXO5gKtrN9kc4pzqqEL90nGAQOFjzBq1KSPC1ulCIvKy5eKHl2I6Si-gjUtzLCtX_1Mw/w400-h239/athousandandone.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>10. BOTTOMS</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgemplFeeA-7CK6POUP_mOPbmMQdOvvUhUugPfPHilK7JojRkzCBd8EVnM2UrwBqVdHNApeLTdC6XXVVCzaSyF9SIkwziCKcJyK2JrDWR13crGkmyGahJi6Sf96UHJi6a_56Xtg58rLw_3Xkk2GT3Ezd9TSyYE3PK672q5TqrcQtoGj2M9qjg_x21LYhUQ/s1920/bottoms%20grimace.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="1920" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgemplFeeA-7CK6POUP_mOPbmMQdOvvUhUugPfPHilK7JojRkzCBd8EVnM2UrwBqVdHNApeLTdC6XXVVCzaSyF9SIkwziCKcJyK2JrDWR13crGkmyGahJi6Sf96UHJi6a_56Xtg58rLw_3Xkk2GT3Ezd9TSyYE3PK672q5TqrcQtoGj2M9qjg_x21LYhUQ/w400-h184/bottoms%20grimace.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>9. THE BOY AND THE HERON</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZeIznHGXVWk8LidgjP4LwWmPdKjPa4BjHQiFqYwP8ptqVACBzj5j0JrEXdwaL2ChNodDmp7GG2CoSMec9mwYseXDrLJ955nt-Cwl77CeDoxePHHCV-iuT2O0Yw6o7LYNrPTdYFM228eyYhZ2sCfXuTk90zPGEAJubfX8SMP_KI4MRkoeI47qTfVnanfs/s1439/boyandtheherontea.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1439" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZeIznHGXVWk8LidgjP4LwWmPdKjPa4BjHQiFqYwP8ptqVACBzj5j0JrEXdwaL2ChNodDmp7GG2CoSMec9mwYseXDrLJ955nt-Cwl77CeDoxePHHCV-iuT2O0Yw6o7LYNrPTdYFM228eyYhZ2sCfXuTk90zPGEAJubfX8SMP_KI4MRkoeI47qTfVnanfs/w400-h225/boyandtheherontea.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>8. SKINAMARINK</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNH0SpGVGhzdpj65KrrZNCksr6iUS54TlJHHkGWQU73K7M7HMGWG3mHSXXfRGHL_2DJ9JkweIraSkwBP6xkPge1Ci3jE2O8E3NCOXHdb7-4IrHpxIMP2wXIPe-WMkCUPC7I04mRhQGYog9v0VILqzwp2dWgFXZgpiLyp6gopZwM31KFn99ICVejV9Hyts/s701/skinamarink%20phone.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="701" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNH0SpGVGhzdpj65KrrZNCksr6iUS54TlJHHkGWQU73K7M7HMGWG3mHSXXfRGHL_2DJ9JkweIraSkwBP6xkPge1Ci3jE2O8E3NCOXHdb7-4IrHpxIMP2wXIPe-WMkCUPC7I04mRhQGYog9v0VILqzwp2dWgFXZgpiLyp6gopZwM31KFn99ICVejV9Hyts/w400-h166/skinamarink%20phone.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>7. PAST LIVES</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz_gwCaQhbEq8gCqBYM5Y8LroDaKXgZt91zn832CknlidQBy_gb_EvebRi-R7A2UU7_IJEert9c-uogLa3MTXxDag_yLNiUt1cEuINhXQV3rM7Du72aove5OR1WMDRx5NgG22xOWSH1S8iT6sB0gy7IcdK36Zro8fWHVmelARadaA5N4roTvIhI7OrpBA/s3840/past-lives.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2063" data-original-width="3840" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz_gwCaQhbEq8gCqBYM5Y8LroDaKXgZt91zn832CknlidQBy_gb_EvebRi-R7A2UU7_IJEert9c-uogLa3MTXxDag_yLNiUt1cEuINhXQV3rM7Du72aove5OR1WMDRx5NgG22xOWSH1S8iT6sB0gy7IcdK36Zro8fWHVmelARadaA5N4roTvIhI7OrpBA/w400-h215/past-lives.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>6. OPPENHEIMER</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyYf1JjpjVFY2DF0uBUk9AWpA1Rvw-Jp4oU8zcPLxUyR0tmQqp_as9GKlakDC5FePics7y-b6CsBCg-fwaJgDdZhiiiK_iaX_qGI3bPzWqvCwEQOwWApGDfelJwUohyphenhyphenWTqFiAopW_PTnh6bcyTbAMaF4LlFvasLTAuJlnOj3elng7JPZAfTTrCNBhFD-Y/s1122/oppenheimertriocolor.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="1122" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyYf1JjpjVFY2DF0uBUk9AWpA1Rvw-Jp4oU8zcPLxUyR0tmQqp_as9GKlakDC5FePics7y-b6CsBCg-fwaJgDdZhiiiK_iaX_qGI3bPzWqvCwEQOwWApGDfelJwUohyphenhyphenWTqFiAopW_PTnh6bcyTbAMaF4LlFvasLTAuJlnOj3elng7JPZAfTTrCNBhFD-Y/w400-h189/oppenheimertriocolor.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>5. POOR THINGS</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiquAUyhzHM7rYFtWevIU-zHTUFnQyjIuX2QjOlI40qtWIZ76ck9W7fOYE11if7o5WStFdXzzpUjn-beyqqGE8QanRntekX6mhUJHPKY9ba1UrzuU9SN57j2eD2uD1vBIf2QHAxdX_XaqY5Vz9oyrKURkOXG0bdhJRHJvhyphenhyphenI_om0tsPSefyYiX08Lz8ZjQ/s1280/poorthingsambush.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="1280" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiquAUyhzHM7rYFtWevIU-zHTUFnQyjIuX2QjOlI40qtWIZ76ck9W7fOYE11if7o5WStFdXzzpUjn-beyqqGE8QanRntekX6mhUJHPKY9ba1UrzuU9SN57j2eD2uD1vBIf2QHAxdX_XaqY5Vz9oyrKURkOXG0bdhJRHJvhyphenhyphenI_om0tsPSefyYiX08Lz8ZjQ/w400-h224/poorthingsambush.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>4. FAIR PLAY</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2V8CwHduzt7powTlGPKso5lDjKgyRsyblM6D1GWlOtRyc_BIm5G-d7zJ6aX2UesfmtylOMw2G_bK3msq-riSk325K6q5s7l6MjK4D8FvtxIrhgnnXx4RkjiytibMTDdaN1WIlYq0MH64L1b7G5SjH5ICXNgVMW42dJEg-t7pE1DiQfnSVkvyzYOdpePk/s850/fairplay.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="850" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2V8CwHduzt7powTlGPKso5lDjKgyRsyblM6D1GWlOtRyc_BIm5G-d7zJ6aX2UesfmtylOMw2G_bK3msq-riSk325K6q5s7l6MjK4D8FvtxIrhgnnXx4RkjiytibMTDdaN1WIlYq0MH64L1b7G5SjH5ICXNgVMW42dJEg-t7pE1DiQfnSVkvyzYOdpePk/w400-h225/fairplay.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>3. MONSTER</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggCRqMEk7IQMV8jHola_1cyuIDdY7rww4rENUelYy__dNpUAX1ZHSt7dv3PbYHOtNISFFQA84sO9i5KaL25jF9WrSc9TMy_bT8wHdgLC6ZMJfSPhzvWisXPbp-ZeVTke2tmgVy3QX0bpjoV1VjnYOx8aZTh8VoKegw6KnHjVbusAlbHVW7Hr38hS3s3Mo/s1920/Monster-3-e1699082834826.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1920" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggCRqMEk7IQMV8jHola_1cyuIDdY7rww4rENUelYy__dNpUAX1ZHSt7dv3PbYHOtNISFFQA84sO9i5KaL25jF9WrSc9TMy_bT8wHdgLC6ZMJfSPhzvWisXPbp-ZeVTke2tmgVy3QX0bpjoV1VjnYOx8aZTh8VoKegw6KnHjVbusAlbHVW7Hr38hS3s3Mo/w400-h169/Monster-3-e1699082834826.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>2. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4qp0xuc_HgLlj_ErfPLW3b-nCLIBrqh-2KA80JCiiSXKRAIMtDL9tw4oOxnbyqebeWqdu1UKoD6ZCNPHp070jAs_PsrkjbyIRrqRacqAkELS22lLbtbW4PD_ZdRXso0wlTnoQaF_MJhnSJw7vbCeQUMNbe205NZMFWv0a8MPoPGatYoiNHs3DMkxSms/s1500/killers-of-the-flower-moon-070423-2-16684bf2f2204266a081acbf663e51ef.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="844" data-original-width="1500" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4qp0xuc_HgLlj_ErfPLW3b-nCLIBrqh-2KA80JCiiSXKRAIMtDL9tw4oOxnbyqebeWqdu1UKoD6ZCNPHp070jAs_PsrkjbyIRrqRacqAkELS22lLbtbW4PD_ZdRXso0wlTnoQaF_MJhnSJw7vbCeQUMNbe205NZMFWv0a8MPoPGatYoiNHs3DMkxSms/w400-h225/killers-of-the-flower-moon-070423-2-16684bf2f2204266a081acbf663e51ef.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>1. HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC_akuO0ZaslisF-Tm5KfHyTkLvvOqfCWnmSCLy01hwFLx_QFJTEs4CYCsydLl38N1WDYkM8lQ8qpHW-TQOHi3XXeMDrx4BW9M9l98yClsqXS7q72tAdepNE022cjX-anxcXLJw4HtYLTz5mjf5aR5gIYur1toWRQj1iK_nvUV0EIudjnumzenRmBRrfU/s640/howtoblowupapipeline.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="640" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC_akuO0ZaslisF-Tm5KfHyTkLvvOqfCWnmSCLy01hwFLx_QFJTEs4CYCsydLl38N1WDYkM8lQ8qpHW-TQOHi3XXeMDrx4BW9M9l98yClsqXS7q72tAdepNE022cjX-anxcXLJw4HtYLTz5mjf5aR5gIYur1toWRQj1iK_nvUV0EIudjnumzenRmBRrfU/w400-h235/howtoblowupapipeline.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">This year's requiem goes not to a person, instead to a place. One of several places that, while valued solely as a patch of land by speculators, were treasured points of convergence for families, lovers, and loners, all of whom owned a set of wheels, a lot of free time after sunset, and a love of watching dreams flicker in the moonlight.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">“[There are] people that come from outside of the city to see the drive-in theater. They don’t come to see warehouses…There should be families smiling and making memories on that property.¨</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;">- Robert Wilkiewicz, Pomona resident, to <a href="https://mhsclarion.net/2763/opinion/the-demolition-of-mission-tiki/">Montclair High School student</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTF0kMYLCskxMVYWlFz4yYwQcveLULnJ2SYhu6kIkV33DA2CbOwjTK5z7RIlgx-HPYfqmQI1r8rJ1R-MsxE8wTIbwmX4xMr0napt2Dud7xWGXqNW_yberRd2Qx93Lak_ZJ9QEodkODznUM8VhmDkp3Qeed7pgT_Hghw2ncRynT5KXQY1Do_l1jVG7uAQ8/s2048/missiontikilastnight.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTF0kMYLCskxMVYWlFz4yYwQcveLULnJ2SYhu6kIkV33DA2CbOwjTK5z7RIlgx-HPYfqmQI1r8rJ1R-MsxE8wTIbwmX4xMr0napt2Dud7xWGXqNW_yberRd2Qx93Lak_ZJ9QEodkODznUM8VhmDkp3Qeed7pgT_Hghw2ncRynT5KXQY1Do_l1jVG7uAQ8/w400-h300/missiontikilastnight.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">- <a href="https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/9701">Mission Tiki Drive-In</a>, May 28, 1956 - January 22, 2023</div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div>Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-43996577278717562672023-11-09T03:52:00.001-08:002023-11-09T11:13:28.769-08:00“They’re the Same Picture”: Patronization, Prosopagnosia, and THE PHOTOGRAPHER<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In
2009, a pseudonymous author and private investigator using the
moniker Phaedra Starling first coined a now ubiquitous and often
contentious term: “Schroedinger’s Rapist.” Modeled on the now
familiar thought experiment of how, if presented with a cat inside a
windowless box, until that box is opened, the cat may be considered
simultaneously both alive and dead, the essay asserted that in the
present day, in the dominant patriarchal structure of society, a
woman dealing with a man, be he a stranger or a longtime presence in
their life, they are always left with that question, and “The only
way we know for sure-the only way the box can be opened, as it
were-is if the man proves himself a rapist by committing a rape,
either against us or against someone else.”</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyNGsc24bCFc8DlDaRYuFbOoTj8xFo8N2OVaQPD2Nwyqn1QgO0DT21fSjYU0VXE2txO8P9dve4zWNqmECIo8oJixPo7JjFkkaYKJwpPGFqWt30PSzWwmKPXhxtm64hj5gLJfdmtzVbwvZTxemJOPr2_wY0XhuUvvIBX55bC9JBNd8VBpU28GwZg9i4qNQ/s1013/ThePhotographeroverseasVHS.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1013" data-original-width="759" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyNGsc24bCFc8DlDaRYuFbOoTj8xFo8N2OVaQPD2Nwyqn1QgO0DT21fSjYU0VXE2txO8P9dve4zWNqmECIo8oJixPo7JjFkkaYKJwpPGFqWt30PSzWwmKPXhxtm64hj5gLJfdmtzVbwvZTxemJOPr2_wY0XhuUvvIBX55bC9JBNd8VBpU28GwZg9i4qNQ/w300-h400/ThePhotographeroverseasVHS.jpg" width="300" /></span></a></div><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">William
Byron Hillman had likely never thought deeply about any concepts tied
to Erwin Schroedinger or what we now call “toxic masculinity”
when he wrote, produced, and directed his second feature film, <span style="font-style: normal;">THE
PHOTOGRAPHER, in 1974. but he got a decent head start on how to
depict it. Though in modern interviews Hillman has retconned his film
to be read as an intentional dark comedy, and some of the choices its
leading star makes in his portrayal would probably arouse astounded
snorts in modern audiences, there are still points made about men’s
perception of women that are no laughing matter.</span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">
THE PHOTOGRAPHER initially unfolds with a familiar structure drawn
from Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM: Adrian Wilde (Michael Callan), an
outwardly avuncular photographer claiming to specialize in animal
portraits and layouts for mystery magazines, is consistently
murdering the models he hires, many times in the actual manner of the
crimes he’s ostensibly re-enacting. He lives in disillusioned
bitterness with his alcoholic mother (Barbara Nichols), whom he still
blames for a childhood incident where a one-night-stand she slept
with attempted to choke him, a somewhat stronger scenario than the
lazy Freudianism of most serial killer movies of the ‘70s pithily
summed up by comedian Robert Holmes: “Anything that is longer than
it is wide...is a penis. And anything that is not a penis, is your
mother.” Even in settings when he’s not intending to kill, such
as photographing a rare schnauzer, his mania kicks in when the dog’s
owner asks him to shoot glamour photos of her, and all he can see is
the pathetic visage of his parent. Like the Andy Summers lyric, every
woman he meets up with becomes his mother in the end. He has enough
self-awareness to attempt reaching out to a friend to confess his
crimes, and to rant at God for allowing him to live. Cosmically, it
will be an almost contrived act of God that will finally end his
killing spree.</span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHnhIG2Dladgns4xNgcDHF0IsqBNmhhCB58lEBnZqSxSVleYwjp8yydYW6gt_QxNdoWrRkJuu_ekMTawxRZ4d_mxglwOiItl0SRwfTTrGswGkEoOPQ-93No0DONA3l83RsYm19VtZUzLCKRvMmUXW8BBKpYURoW2pWWO9t_4Kycqzz6Cj4Hy2y5RfKgio/s1920/manfromclovergrovelandscape.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHnhIG2Dladgns4xNgcDHF0IsqBNmhhCB58lEBnZqSxSVleYwjp8yydYW6gt_QxNdoWrRkJuu_ekMTawxRZ4d_mxglwOiItl0SRwfTTrGswGkEoOPQ-93No0DONA3l83RsYm19VtZUzLCKRvMmUXW8BBKpYURoW2pWWO9t_4Kycqzz6Cj4Hy2y5RfKgio/s320/manfromclovergrovelandscape.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje59hfjJy82m7Mdu9yZvpSX6PHfDaP6MrdGqycPWT5R604cSjzMtOUYWKZdXUi97jnQBRD5EzNKamD8_9VM-CKwF-NSqGa6RrSG7K1bXnNfZ2ri_bw4LG-5XVgh9HnCTiVxNebmCGcHFGt7LFOHgUOx9V9-w1W99fAqCbZZWqtcUxnaBznLOHn3qS-wUs/s686/quigleylandscape.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="386" data-original-width="686" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje59hfjJy82m7Mdu9yZvpSX6PHfDaP6MrdGqycPWT5R604cSjzMtOUYWKZdXUi97jnQBRD5EzNKamD8_9VM-CKwF-NSqGa6RrSG7K1bXnNfZ2ri_bw4LG-5XVgh9HnCTiVxNebmCGcHFGt7LFOHgUOx9V9-w1W99fAqCbZZWqtcUxnaBznLOHn3qS-wUs/s320/quigleylandscape.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">All
of this kind of grim material seems like an odd 180 turn from a
writer/producer/director whose career has leaned more often to
family-friendly comedy (though wildly, THE PHOTOGRAPHER still carries
an unaccompanied-minors-friendly PG rating). The former actor,
stuntman, and animal trainer made his trifecta debut with THE MAN
FROM CLOVER GROVE, shot in 1972, a slapstick fantasy about a rural
toymaker (Ron Masak) whose creations spark confrontations with local
police and corporate intrigue. As he described in a blog post from
February 2018, “Back in the 70's when young filmmakers made
motorcycle, horror and T&A flicks, I did the opposite and made a
G rated goofy comedy...It's corny fun the kids loved then and still
love today.” And after making THE PHOTOGRAPHER and such detours as
writing the 1984 teen sex comedy LOVELINES and collaborating with
David Heavener on the 1990 revenge-o-matic drama RAGIN’ CAJUN,
along with other unproduced projects alluded to on the history page
at his website, since 1998, Hillman has stuck almost entirely to
kid-friendly fare as THE ADVENTURES OF RAGTIME and QUIGLEY, though he
does carry a producer-only credit on an upcoming “psychological
thriller” by Chuck Borden, PURGATORIUM. Reflecting on his career in
October 2013, he remarked, “While I have produced and directed R
rated projects that did exceedingly well at the box office and later
on home video, all have disappeared from distribution after a few
years and you can’t find a copy to rent anywhere...The G rated
films I have produced and directed are still in distribution, and all
of them have returned more in residuals than all the other projects I
have done combined.”</span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
Entertainment industry news
clippings of the time tell of a long process of bringing THE
PHOTOGRAPHER to the screen. It was first announced in July 1972 as
the second project of Intro-Media Productions, the company created by
Hillman with career camera operator William E. Hines, following
CLOVER GROVE, and was initially planned to reunite the stars of that
film, Ron Masak and Cheryl Miller, with a script credited to Hines,
to begin shooting in November of that year. In January 1973, Hillman
was announced as director, with an intention to begin shooting in
February, with announcements that GROVE actors Spencer Milligan and
Jed Allan would be in the cast. Almost no news followed on the
project the rest of the year, likely due to Intro-Media focusing on
the sale of CLOVER GROVE to new distributor American Cinema, who
would later release the Chuck Norris films GOOD GUYS WEAR BLACK and
THE OCTAGON, and promoting it in regional markets. When Michael
Callan and Barbara Nichols were announced as the new leads in January
1974, and that shooting would begin in San Francisco on the 11th</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> of that month, Hillman was now listed as writer and director with
Hines’ name no longer mentioned, suggesting a significant change in
the script from what had originally been conceived. Production
wrapped on April 27th</span><span style="font-style: normal;">.
On October 21st</span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
it was announced that Avco Embassy had picked up distribution rights,
and it first opened in a quiet test engagement in Spokane,
Washington, on December 6th</span><span style="font-style: normal;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />
</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDhdlYKi_n9dPDtB-xJMouIGZi13k6TqSzctH540_ztIpHA4owiwl3_NWrD0-U62Tf23WFHJSrpBy5aIvR_6d2RZfILvVegcg_i1tgyZ4bWE7gOn-zHWyf2Cgz1w0Q-fHy0v95I60jpK0gdV92JZSiG14H0Y-kZGQzlN_vhdzeINmD2jdV8KYWN8MuGUY/s640/ThePhotographerHillmandirectingCallan.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="640" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDhdlYKi_n9dPDtB-xJMouIGZi13k6TqSzctH540_ztIpHA4owiwl3_NWrD0-U62Tf23WFHJSrpBy5aIvR_6d2RZfILvVegcg_i1tgyZ4bWE7gOn-zHWyf2Cgz1w0Q-fHy0v95I60jpK0gdV92JZSiG14H0Y-kZGQzlN_vhdzeINmD2jdV8KYWN8MuGUY/w400-h324/ThePhotographerHillmandirectingCallan.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">image courtesy of William Byron Hillman</span></div><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">From piecing together snatches from various interviews, once
underway, the shoot offered some challenges. In a 2017 BluRay
commentary interview with Joe Rubin of the Vinegar Syndrome label, he
stated, “When we made THE PHOTOGRAPHER we had a [pending] deal with
Avco Embassy, and Avco Embassy didn’t want us to do something
outlandish. They didn’t want nudity, they didn’t want real
slasher kind of violence...Originally we had some more outlandish
scenes planned, and they were all pulled. And we made it kind of a
mellow version [of] a thriller...a lighthearted version of [a serial
killer’s story].” In a pair of summer 2014 Facebook posts, he
said, “Directing Michael Callan was a bit strange. He was taking
the role seriously, thinking about killing Barbara Nichols...Calming
him down was like offering a virtual Xanax...Directing them was like
trying to keep up with who could tell the best story, remember their
lines and when ‘ACTION’ was shouted - go right back into
character. One minute we were laughing hysterically and then next
talking about murder.” In Richard Koper’s biography THAT KIND OF
WOMAN: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF BARBARA NICHOLS, he recounted, “She
was starting to slide into bad habits...She snuck drinks onto the set
after promising not to...[But she] promised she would never miss a
line or be late and she wasn’t...Bottom line, I loved working with
her.”</span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiri58PyivolXKPUW-y5j1iu5dhGbYGi7PJ7-MoikPCuIm_xm89Ej4Z0a2xAhU06OWN_khxwBYZkeAeIByoXCyKOuy0dz2BOorQ5eHCfpFrnP28OBj-en6xhQQO_pIFfj3Iiz3rFsV0HtADffc3VLesWWiOQQzUo0jEiCbfNGLwhAByYdFORkleCeZZ_6A/s607/ThePhotographerCallanB+Wscope.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="607" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiri58PyivolXKPUW-y5j1iu5dhGbYGi7PJ7-MoikPCuIm_xm89Ej4Z0a2xAhU06OWN_khxwBYZkeAeIByoXCyKOuy0dz2BOorQ5eHCfpFrnP28OBj-en6xhQQO_pIFfj3Iiz3rFsV0HtADffc3VLesWWiOQQzUo0jEiCbfNGLwhAByYdFORkleCeZZ_6A/w400-h178/ThePhotographerCallanB+Wscope.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Callan’s opening scenes as Wilde would not initially seem
100% sinister to audiences in the mid-70s, though they unfold like a
parade of red flags to a present-day viewer. His demeanor and
gravelly voice comes across, as Conchata Ferrell would say in
NETWORK, “crusty but benign,” and until the moments when he
inevitably snaps, he seems no different than any other jaded
professional. Only in the presence of his mother, imminent victims,
and with God, does he openly display his full-strength rage. The
actor had established himself as a versatile song-and-dance man,
playing Riff in the original Broadway cast of WEST SIDE STORY. During
his years as a contract player at Columbia Pictures, while
occasionally playing a bad boy in films as THE VICTORS, was mostly
cast as likeable handsome types, serving as man candy for Deborah
Walley in GIDGET GOES HAWAIIAN and Jane Fonda in CAT BALLOU,
culminating in a one-season sitcom, “OCCASIONAL WIFE,” playing a
bachelor faking marriage to a co-worker so that both may advance in
their company. This was his first headlining film role as an all-out
heel, shot before the name Ted Bundy became famous, so while it is
now a cliché for serial killer tales to have almost all female
victims be attracted to their predator, it doesn’t play implausibly
here. If anything, it carries the comic veneer that Hillman suggests
was in effect, especially since in most occasions, he actively
resists the overtures of his victims, tentatively parodying the
cliché before it became one.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />
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<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">
Meanwhile, the other men orbiting around this situation offer little
positive contrast, especially in regards to their view of women; the
low bar what separates them from Wilde is that, well, they aren’t
actively murdering anyone. Wilde’s best friend Clinton (Spencer
Milligan) has been secretly sleeping with his pal’s hated mother,
fences stolen goods through his pal’s photography studio, and at
one point selfishly asks him for a hookup to the wealthy wife of a
jeweler, unaware that Wilde killed her earlier on. Lt. Luther (Harold
J. Stone) and Sgt. Sid (Edward Andrews), the homicide detectives who
find some of his victims, at first dismiss them as suicides,
runaways, and hookers, failing to connect the dots, and spending
almost more time grousing about their own diets. Even the ostensible
heroic coroner Joe (Jed Allan), who finds the pattern between the
killings and alerts the detectives, is way more focused on his exotic
cooking, which he conducts in the morgue itself, thus literally
treating the human remains of violent crime like so much meat in his
personal kitchen. While never approaching the bleak misanthropic
nihilism of, say, Abel Ferrara’s MS. 45, the microcosm of men
Hillman presents here are not an inspiring lot. Accepting Hillman’s
framing of his story as a dark comedy, one of its rueful punchlines
is how the cops’ discovery of Wilde’s souvenirs of his killings –
the photographs – deliver more shock and emotional impact to them
than the actual dead bodies of the women at the crime scene. But
then, when they were shooting this film, Paul Simon was all over Top
40 radio proclaiming, “Everything looks worse in black and white.”</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />
</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7bHW301hqYMgjODcFlyQ4QPne205gp7y5LrfenWO3bot4XpdbXNs8HjMbogi4Efb1CCn56Wim3mJJ4zZmujzW0qrDnA-cWsGIl_LhOg2lItuX9nmIbQRU__SRreE-ejwTsk0Dz42WZ_O9EWNR6GsuSbNTbAot9MdriE0hzSzurv1NM7lgDdWQPggU9vk/s720/ThePhotographerNicholsStoneAndrews.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="516" data-original-width="720" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7bHW301hqYMgjODcFlyQ4QPne205gp7y5LrfenWO3bot4XpdbXNs8HjMbogi4Efb1CCn56Wim3mJJ4zZmujzW0qrDnA-cWsGIl_LhOg2lItuX9nmIbQRU__SRreE-ejwTsk0Dz42WZ_O9EWNR6GsuSbNTbAot9MdriE0hzSzurv1NM7lgDdWQPggU9vk/s320/ThePhotographerNicholsStoneAndrews.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">image courtesy of William Byron Hillman</span></div><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The actors playing these supporting characters hew to the archetypes
they’d previously established elsewhere. Milligan and Allan had
both previously acted in CLOVER GROVE, and are essentially playing
the same kinds of roles here, Milligan as a useless associate of the
protagonist, Allan as a kooky but wise misfit who sees the bigger
picture. The presentation of Stone and Andrews as the detectives is
very much in line personality-wise with several types they had
essayed before: Stone as grave, respected authority figures, and
Andrews as petty bureaucrats. Notably, they both played such roles in
episodes of “THE TWILIGHT ZONE;” Andrews as an unctuous colleague
in “Third from the Sun” and Stone as an FAA inspector with a big
unsolved case in “The Arrival.” Stone also played an otherwise
competent detective unable to identify a unique murder weapon in an
episode of “ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS” directed by Hitchcock
himself, “Lamb to the Slaughter.”</span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWic33bu8-Y-_8buVkhsrw2Ox6GVgVZNsMsMBw5VInGtlKM-p3GG33mcoo7mIx08e5EM4C62ZBS2WAhF2NPosi5b0OkBuq8hr9BQ9GzPQa67NDnbnAUy677nMEjMifVA6lje2Ez19wHwb9P1R4Dw-GB19Ud5YA7WHh0r4JGn2T7h1VX-FH9WSQyXE5anM/s2160/ThePhotographercharactertriptych.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="2160" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWic33bu8-Y-_8buVkhsrw2Ox6GVgVZNsMsMBw5VInGtlKM-p3GG33mcoo7mIx08e5EM4C62ZBS2WAhF2NPosi5b0OkBuq8hr9BQ9GzPQa67NDnbnAUy677nMEjMifVA6lje2Ez19wHwb9P1R4Dw-GB19Ud5YA7WHh0r4JGn2T7h1VX-FH9WSQyXE5anM/w400-h100/ThePhotographercharactertriptych.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">
What is
particularly striking is the uncanny manner that Callan, Milligan,
and Allan all...sort of look alike! When Clinton first shows up to
have a nooner with Wilde’s mother, he can almost be mistaken for a
blood relative, and when they are shown bowling together, you’d
almost think they’re brothers, with Clinton having a wider face and
a more slovenly demeanor. And while Joe the coroner easily stands out
from the rest of the cops at the precinct by his youth and tight
curly hair, he too has the same sort of face structure as Wilde. The
result of Hillman’s casting, in tandem with the behavior of these
three characters as respectively Chaotic Evil, Neutral, and Good,
creates an environment where, if their mugshots were presented to a
witness, they could end up second-guessing themselves, or, in the
manner of the infamous meme from “THE OFFICE,” declare they’re
all the same person.
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
here, whether Hillman intended it or not (and if he intended it, was
it for chuckles or for creeps), is where he unexpectedly lays out a
“Schroedinger’s Rapist” scenario and becomes a soothsayer of
women’s conundrums to come. Again, maybe a modern viewer calloused
by decades of crimes, culture, and snark, may dismiss Wilde’s
victims as the typical naive prey of a slasher flick, but for their
realm of knowledge in the story’s setting, they cannot be
immediately certain of his intentions until he acts on them, and
they’ve been socialized to give him the benefit of the doubt, a
deadly miscalculation. Concurrently, Clinton conducts himself like
the sleazy opportunist that he is, and while he’s ultimately not a
killer like Wilde, the winsome waitress at the bowling alley, Candy
(Patty Bodeen) has seen enough of his antics to keep him at bay,
making a judgment call that keeps her safe in the short run, though
her repeated outreach to Wilde suggests she too is giving him more
slack than is wise. It’s a Hobson’s choice she navigates every
time she goes to work. It’s doubtful Hillman ever fancied himself
some sort of sensitive new age guy – his first credit as a
producer, ODDLY COUPLED aka BETTA BETTA, has a logline so offensive
even </span><i>he</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> won’t
describe it on his own website resume – but by creating a milleu
where, as a woman, you’re marginally safer with a con artist than a
real artist, and if you do lose your life to either of them, the
police’s first instinct is to ask what you did to cause it, and the
man in charge of diagnosing your demise is doing that job in between
cooking lessons, he has lain out why all these years later, women
can’t often safely distinguish which man is a threat and which is
not. </span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />
</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ7lsvbEd14KqX-tNE3JQ8NoCJmW_tM_UvjMs6CP6IiAzneRSulV-3LSCCb_8yNcUktIXOdKROMOPB_KUsWs3pYF8PXZx3_PNuL2R-GNXEe68b3t9QStorQHpZmqLmJB-I_HyPsxIDYY4k1zCxbYtmSk0o-1m2MEdjBiSTsOrsKOckeJ72k3uEP8ug9mU/s798/doubleexposureCallanStacynight.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="343" data-original-width="798" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ7lsvbEd14KqX-tNE3JQ8NoCJmW_tM_UvjMs6CP6IiAzneRSulV-3LSCCb_8yNcUktIXOdKROMOPB_KUsWs3pYF8PXZx3_PNuL2R-GNXEe68b3t9QStorQHpZmqLmJB-I_HyPsxIDYY4k1zCxbYtmSk0o-1m2MEdjBiSTsOrsKOckeJ72k3uEP8ug9mU/w400-h173/doubleexposureCallanStacynight.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The
question of whether this indistinguishability was intentional or not
grows curiouser upon watching Hillman & Callan’s 1982 return
to the life of Adrian Wilde, DOUBLE EXPOSURE. In present day
interviews, Hillman describes the film an an origin story or prequel
to the events of THE PHOTOGRAPHER, though it more effectively serves
as a retconning of the character, since there is little to no mention
of Wilde’s despised mother or the incident from the previous film
that scarred him, DOUBLE EXPOSURE takes away one family member, but
provides Wilde with an actual brother, B.J. (James Stacy), a stuntman
adapting to the loss of an arm and a leg, a role specifically written
for the real-life double amputee actor. And while again, the movie
presents a spate of model murders investigated by comically
ill-equipped (but this time less condescending) detectives, in this
tale there is reason to question whether or not Wilde is responsible
for the killings. Overall, it is a more straightforward and less
peculiar production than THE PHOTOGRAPHER, but by giving Wilde a
direct blood relation that bears resemblance to him and with whom
there’s mutual affection, Hillman still plays a “can you tell
these men apart, really” game.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">
It’s also within reason to contemplate whether Hillman’s
screenplay had been influenced in any way by one of the film’s
executive producers, another actor-turned-filmmaker, John Hayes, a
struggling playwright who took the occasional acting role in
wholesome fare as Disney’s THE SHAGGY D.A., but created films that
were anything but family friendly. Writer Stephen Thrower, in his
deeply researched history book of exploitation filmmaking NIGHTMARE
USA, wrote of Hayes, “What’s striking about [his] career
trajectory is the way that he returns, time and time again, to the
experiences of his childhood, revisiting familial traumas in a
variety of settings, from melodrama to horror to hardcore.” And
Adrian Wilde’s grudge with his mother lines up thematically with
similar instances of horrid parenting in Hayes’ films MAMA’S
DIRTY GIRLS, DREAM NO EVIL, and GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE. In his talk
with Joe Rubin on the commentary track for DOUBLE EXPOSURE, Hillman
suggests he does not need outside inspiration, saying “I don’t
want to copy anybody. I hope I don’t ever do that. Everything I try
to do is original...Everything is macabre [and] I have my own sick
mind.” Still, his and Hayes’ collective antagonists could easily
form their own bowling team.</span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHqesYioewritKEGqaWfBxpKXZH7etD1optxM-YN2p_3eeEU13DvFWmrUBSazS9P_qR4ho79bQoXUg3u_FY4eJIijkWTr-PRGS_loJxfO1PsHPqGH91h7Tgx17O9YDx196QORuvRpPJtLUwUoFraIr2Dutrb0JzOqrph0uIsOvzgS6x8d1lXFH8fZuZ24/s2245/ThePhotographercampaign1long.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2245" data-original-width="1072" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHqesYioewritKEGqaWfBxpKXZH7etD1optxM-YN2p_3eeEU13DvFWmrUBSazS9P_qR4ho79bQoXUg3u_FY4eJIijkWTr-PRGS_loJxfO1PsHPqGH91h7Tgx17O9YDx196QORuvRpPJtLUwUoFraIr2Dutrb0JzOqrph0uIsOvzgS6x8d1lXFH8fZuZ24/w96-h200/ThePhotographercampaign1long.gif" width="96" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMTmRjEga-EtU33VDRm1xVnWPwVFWLuKA-8Z-OAqTyipP_d00pb3Ad4C2DbfTZJJVbZ9zBfgKthJyRwgTCOy4LtUxDPyUMmWjRWVXBnk4jpioUVShfDm9SiaHhg7lly2M4LPYIRGgax_cUQe0hUpx1A75OHAEotgJSOkrqCqzJNVfGBVy9PEkn_dXZM_g/s1075/ThePhotographercampaign2long.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1075" data-original-width="558" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMTmRjEga-EtU33VDRm1xVnWPwVFWLuKA-8Z-OAqTyipP_d00pb3Ad4C2DbfTZJJVbZ9zBfgKthJyRwgTCOy4LtUxDPyUMmWjRWVXBnk4jpioUVShfDm9SiaHhg7lly2M4LPYIRGgax_cUQe0hUpx1A75OHAEotgJSOkrqCqzJNVfGBVy9PEkn_dXZM_g/w104-h200/ThePhotographercampaign2long.jpg" width="104" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX8-5V_BibWdo_ZPWGWcvwpY9T3Ph5mi_bVXTI56rRaXXJH8BNNHx5V2zuXihaFcrMP6JbLHmSpchhktBglQlL9zjQJt8xcd-jC4E5injRWaBgLm1EAYgl4-mTy0wehGyBiiBK_mOxFdcCapXVWCWOlcLx06cYhrdPTVlgIzYi9RwvPXdz3ueReQiN0Fw/s570/ThePhotographerCharterVHS.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="310" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX8-5V_BibWdo_ZPWGWcvwpY9T3Ph5mi_bVXTI56rRaXXJH8BNNHx5V2zuXihaFcrMP6JbLHmSpchhktBglQlL9zjQJt8xcd-jC4E5injRWaBgLm1EAYgl4-mTy0wehGyBiiBK_mOxFdcCapXVWCWOlcLx06cYhrdPTVlgIzYi9RwvPXdz3ueReQiN0Fw/w109-h200/ThePhotographerCharterVHS.jpg" width="109" /></a></span></div><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">THE PHOTOGRAPHER has been a difficult film to see from the
moment it was released. It took nearly three years for it to make
it’s journey to cinema audiences. After a brief release in upper
northwest cities in December 1974 through early January 1975, Avco
Embassy sat on the film for a long spell, then made another attempt
with a new ad campaign in the Tri-State region of
Ohio/Indiana/Kentucky from January to February 1977. Neither push
drew good reception from the few critics that deigned to review it.
During it’s pre-Christmas 1974 run in Spokane, Washington,
Spokesman-Review critic Joan Applegate threw ridiculously cruel darts
at Michael Callan’s entire career, sneering, “Callan thinks he is
going to make a comeback to filmdom and takes his role all too
seriously. For those who might remember the face or name, Callan has
starred in such celluloid greats as THE INTERNS and BECAUSE THEY’RE
YOUNG. Neither strained his talent, nor does his latest effort.”
When it arrived in Cincinnati in late January 1977, Cincinnati Post
critic Jerry Stein snarked, “Hillman’s idea of portraying a
psychotic is having star Michael Callan grunt, growl, and clench his
fists. Too bad ‘King Kong’ already has been cast.” Even with
its PG rating, the subject matter must have proven too disturbing for
television, as no network, cable, or syndicated airings can be
readily found after it left cinemas. And aside from a quiet VHS
release on Embassy’s Charter sub-label in 1987, it has been out of
circulation since. By comparison, it’s “requel” DOUBLE EXPOSURE
received a more muscular release from Crown International, its VHS
release was promoted strongly by Vestron Video, and has received
several DVD and BluRay releases to the present day.</span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />
<br />
Luckily,
Grindhouse Releasing co-founder Sage Stallone saw the film, and
became a long and vocal champion of it during his ascent as a trusted
authority on exploitation films. He ultimately elevated his support
to the strongest degree by acquiring the rights to it after Embassy
Pictures’ initial deal with Hillman expired, planning an ambitious
revival for it. Sadly, he had not yet achieved his hopes of giving it
a significant reissue when he unexpectedly died in 2012. But his
actions have made sure the elements are safe and preserved, and
Grindhouse continues to have it on their slate of upcoming
restorations.</span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />
<br />
It’s been nearly 50 years since the
filming and release of THE PHOTOGRAPHER. What was surprising and
transgressive to ‘70s audiences has significantly changed. The
predatory threat of unhinged men violating women, and the prevalent
dismissive attitudes of men on woman after violation, has not. It may
not make Hillman a prophet or a feminist, but it demonstrates that
the instincts he brought to his film were correct. As such, it’s
also what makes it inherently watchable both as a time capsule and a
time-released warning to the present day.</span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1sE8MaljCYEkOqIGSO9ZYM7ucGCqHFNXSp02DOF9KsFzVbO9Xhyphenhyphen2UkFJzh98kvvedGTtYvxGIp3nIjLf_B1uqZ70KEFipR9ZhgqNkF43rp6JqNj3-fxpqjU2b85luKeZe-eqZ0xf8gFTI1569cRNgo1weOzsWyIInW3kAP73ZU8sQooZr1AkdO_rDsJM/s720/ThePhotographerfinalescope.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="319" data-original-width="720" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1sE8MaljCYEkOqIGSO9ZYM7ucGCqHFNXSp02DOF9KsFzVbO9Xhyphenhyphen2UkFJzh98kvvedGTtYvxGIp3nIjLf_B1uqZ70KEFipR9ZhgqNkF43rp6JqNj3-fxpqjU2b85luKeZe-eqZ0xf8gFTI1569cRNgo1weOzsWyIInW3kAP73ZU8sQooZr1AkdO_rDsJM/w400-h178/ThePhotographerfinalescope.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-61740225723090823822023-01-14T11:49:00.001-08:002023-01-14T11:49:44.394-08:00It Was Just Out of Reach<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZUKxEdWAbGcjsQkHXq2vZEh1MuVL5bbzXvPbPLHjsi4z2euSZJXNzJ19a2GB3YccbeBWC0dCOxI9EEpFCVWQ2t07ChufVPpsMM7b_HwaKrwuVPKlaHglQln0slSXjrp3sY_YZcc5-zFP7wBWv6cnnnmHhZl7YSAz9UxqBHElcpgD5qLANGD2gae6s/s794/PatRussellAustinAmStates042579%20image%20crop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="643" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZUKxEdWAbGcjsQkHXq2vZEh1MuVL5bbzXvPbPLHjsi4z2euSZJXNzJ19a2GB3YccbeBWC0dCOxI9EEpFCVWQ2t07ChufVPpsMM7b_HwaKrwuVPKlaHglQln0slSXjrp3sY_YZcc5-zFP7wBWv6cnnnmHhZl7YSAz9UxqBHElcpgD5qLANGD2gae6s/s320/PatRussellAustinAmStates042579%20image%20crop.jpg" width="259" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>In a sense, Patricia Russell was well-suited to a creative life because her early years were already chronicled in public. She and her sister Susan Hudson Russell were ersatz Akron, Ohio celebrities, granddaughters of M.M. Kindig, a lifelong president of the Burger Iron Company, whose parents John & Ruth were frequently in the society pages until their untimely deaths in 1966 and 1968, respectively. Their births, notable public appearances, and the loss of their parents were reported in the local papers. Susan became both a collector of art and a consultant to others investing in purchasing it, working during the '70s at the NEA. Patricia in turn obtained a B.S. in psychology and dramatic arts from University of Wisconsin, and was seeking acting roles for a decade until switching to directing, receiving a Master's degree from NYU in 1973. Both sisters had entered marriages in their early adulthood that proved short-lived, and even their activities post-divorce were given column space.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwhoP6RyolXMxWd3UL1G1-Fwuw8qj_DuGq-SpMqCGGY-SeFUXKJP2FdtJhGfb7EMDibR76cGNho0jU2ogqj1PA0UIonrsBNk-bkqHTX4iyAjdq4sDLHxuhnqTk4y8FEMIxskoMnLhxQwZaSkbIrjn0ubKuzu9YPYniEZI8Rg7JV25gG4ByaFGI3vD/s4278/PatRussellAkronBeacJour062776.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4278" data-original-width="1268" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwhoP6RyolXMxWd3UL1G1-Fwuw8qj_DuGq-SpMqCGGY-SeFUXKJP2FdtJhGfb7EMDibR76cGNho0jU2ogqj1PA0UIonrsBNk-bkqHTX4iyAjdq4sDLHxuhnqTk4y8FEMIxskoMnLhxQwZaSkbIrjn0ubKuzu9YPYniEZI8Rg7JV25gG4ByaFGI3vD/w119-h400/PatRussellAkronBeacJour062776.jpg" width="119" /></a></div><p><br /><br />During her time at NYU, Russell made a short film geared for the educational market, SALLY, about a 13-year-old facing the vagaries of puberty: getting taunted by older girls (including her sister), uncomfortable health classes, and learning about her own body. Film historian and Trailers From Hell contributor <a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1032sex2.html">Glenn Erickson described it in 2003</a> as, "<u>This</u> is the keeper...[starring] a phenomenally sympathetic actress named Irene Arranga....[this very] effective film would surely reach girls in the right way." Arranga would later touch TV viewers in the last season of the sitcom "WELCOME BACK KOTTER" as Arnold Horshack's girlfriend Mary, whom he would wed in the series finale. SALLY took an unsually long time to reach the market, being serviced to schools in 1979, and according to chroniclers of educational films, was little screened to the very audience it was geared for, due to teachers and other authorities displeased with the ambiguous and non-judgmental tone of the story. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q4rVe2k6-vM" width="320" youtube-src-id="q4rVe2k6-vM"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(If SALLY does not play already cued upon your click, go to 1:57:23 in this YouTube file)</span></div><p><br /></p><p>Russell's vivid feelings about her brief marriage provided the foundation for her sole feature film, REACHING OUT. It is a loosely autobiographical story of a young wife with ambitions beyond homemaking that are treated condescendingly, who grows discontent with being regarded as a trophy for her social climbing husband, especially after she catches him cheating on her. She leaves him to move to Greenwich Village, where she must navigate the satisfaction of following her acting dream with the dangers of being a single women, including an attempted rape. Mixing funds raised from supportive investors with the remains of an inheritance from her grandfather, she amassed $500,000 and began shooting the film in 1974 over the span of two and half years. Then after completion, she spent another two years trying to get it shown. She was able to enter it into the first Utah/U.S. Film Festival in Salt Lake City, later to be known as Sundance, in September 1978, where it was in competition with Claudia Weill's GIRLFRIENDS, Penny Allen's PROPERTY, Mark Rappaport's LOCAL COLOR. George A. Romero's MARTIN, Martha Coolidge's NOT A PRETTY PICTURE, and Paul Mazursky's NEXT STOP GREENWICH VILLAGE.</p><p><br />Most fatefully, it also put her in the orbit of Austin, Texas filmmaker Eagle Pennell.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw3jNsfI8CD3BiBCSoRXcRvv3XVJ3TT2k_BV2kWqVsQA5LZA_jbG_XLXXrecBGd3D2HH9olTdFQqBQQi18HTyiRoXNN7vxOqWpeiufzvOPtPoDySSfdjRCI1fr4xvU3UUCfGGQiCqx6tyh1K-wguRa9tdqjKDKtduKIxDVUhTGFS_Vox-auBwaCL0i/s467/EaglePennellFeb1980.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="390" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw3jNsfI8CD3BiBCSoRXcRvv3XVJ3TT2k_BV2kWqVsQA5LZA_jbG_XLXXrecBGd3D2HH9olTdFQqBQQi18HTyiRoXNN7vxOqWpeiufzvOPtPoDySSfdjRCI1fr4xvU3UUCfGGQiCqx6tyh1K-wguRa9tdqjKDKtduKIxDVUhTGFS_Vox-auBwaCL0i/s320/EaglePennellFeb1980.jpg" width="267" /></a></div><p><br /></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"Eagle Pennell was politely called a regional filmmaker by those unaccustomed to his kind, and like many in his native Texas, he had an outsized impression of his own identity that ultimately destroyed him. In 1978, when A-list Hollywood was made up of veterans of Roger Corman’s shoestring epics, and everyone else in America with dreams to burn now worked for Corman to replace them, the first inklings of what we now think of as independent film came courtesy of people who were too clueless or inept to follow that simple protocol. One of them was Eagle, whose shaggy dog buddy comedy THE WHOLE SHOOTIN' MATCH pioneered that Austin-specific sort of epic underachieverdom that SLACKER later turned into an anthropological treatise. But Eagle’s laconic dreamers, drunk as a lord and impossibly balanced on the thin line that separates ambition from nostalgia, were more than just literary conceits. They were Eagle in a nutshell." - <a href="https://arthurmag.com/2011/02/18/a-tribute-to-eagle-pennell-by-paul-cullum-arthur-no-1oct-2002/">Paul Cullum, "A Tribute to Eagle Pennell", Arthur Magazine, October 2002</a> </p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Pennell had conceived THE WHOLE SHOOTIN' MATCH from reworked elements of a previous short film, HELL OF A NOTE, and with collaboration from neophyte writer/producer Lin Sutherland, shot it for approximately $30,000 with friends and favors through 1977. It drew enough positive attention from its play at the USA Film Festival in Dallas that it was acquired by New Line Cinema, then known more for foreign and arthouse films than for the horror classics that made them world-famous in the '80s. But its most significant elevation came when the film drew the attention of Robert Redford, who as the primary muscle behind the nascent Sundance festival, felt Pennell was the kind of under-the-radar talent whom such an event could nurture and promote. THE WHOLE SHOOTIN' MATCH would be touted in 1981 by Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert on their original "SNEAK PREVIEWS" review show on PBS as an independent to watch, in an episode that also featured John Sayles' RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS SEVEN, Richard Pearce's HEARTLAND, Anna Thomas' THE HAUNTING OF M, and Victor Nunez' GAL YOUNG 'UN.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pOOGHcFs65k" width="320" youtube-src-id="pOOGHcFs65k"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><p>As recounted by author Alison Macor in her book CHAINSAWS, SLACKERS, AND SPY KIDS: THIRTY YEARS OF FILMMAKING IN AUSTIN, TEXAS, Pennell's film had won a "special second prize" from the Utah judges (First Prize went to Claudia Weill's GIRLFRIENDS), and at a post-ceremony after-party, amidst engaging in the kind of braggadocious antics that would become his trademark, Pennell and Russell became more than friends that evening. Russell spent the following year of 1979 attending more festivals and one-off screenings with REACHING OUT, plus four-walling an April test release in Austin, with a goal to secure it a distribution deal. At least once, she traveled in tandem with Pennell and SHOOTIN' MATCH: they were both programmed at <a href="https://indiecollect.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/sandra-schulbergs-farewell-to-ben-barenholtz-1935-2019.pdf">the first Independent Feature Film Market in September 1979</a>, along with their previous U.S. Festival rivals PROPERTY and NOT A PRETTY PICTURE. While never mentioning his name in subsequent interviews of the time, she acknowledged that she had recently become an unexpected mother, and was planning to write her next script about that experience. Meanwhile, Pennell, to the best of available research, never mentioned her name in any documented fashion, but did sit for a photo in 1980, taken by his photographer friend Ard Hesselink in Venice Beach, in the company of Russell and their son. As Hesselink observed when he posted the photo to his website and Flickr accounts after Pennell's death, he described their child having been conceived "more or less by accident," and after moving out of America, maintained contact with Pennell, but learned no further information about Russell or their son. It is likely the parents ceased any pretense of being a couple shortly after this photograph was taken.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilHKJbdySXuo9Jzg2khNl0vfRA95ckhJQ582z0-ry_wWu0K901tWOMR4SOnEiOzkDdSSWO1SywEZzopGpRjNCEZm1BtmVG206NGaHgxEQRrKoeDEMcxpDZ12xrfLMFjH8QRSn9laRlZlm0hxqtMXiL05uXtZeYUZsOLoRRJp3rEYY0lFUDlviBN6OK/s782/Ard%20Hesselink%20Pat+EagleVeniceBeach1980.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="514" data-original-width="782" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilHKJbdySXuo9Jzg2khNl0vfRA95ckhJQ582z0-ry_wWu0K901tWOMR4SOnEiOzkDdSSWO1SywEZzopGpRjNCEZm1BtmVG206NGaHgxEQRrKoeDEMcxpDZ12xrfLMFjH8QRSn9laRlZlm0hxqtMXiL05uXtZeYUZsOLoRRJp3rEYY0lFUDlviBN6OK/w400-h263/Ard%20Hesselink%20Pat+EagleVeniceBeach1980.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">image courtesy of Ard Hesselink</span></div><p><br /></p><p>Despite collecting good reviews from both Hollywood royalty as Robert Wise and respected indie pioneers as Robert M. Young, along with praise from Stephen Farber and Roger Ebert, by the '80s, Russell still had not found a willing distributor, and ultimately paid out of pocket to open REACHING OUT in New York City in May 1983. It was not received well. An absurdly hateful review in the New York Daily News called it "shameless Me Generation indulgence." And the ostensibly polite <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/16/movies/reaching-out.html">Janet Maslin of The New York Times seemed personally offended</a>, as she dismissed it as a "lifeless, amateurish chronicle" and described her character as a "not very sympathetic young woman" and "a whiny, self-pitying victim." Talking to the White Plains Journal News a year later, Russell remarked, "The morning the review came out was like a funeral at my ad agency. They all knew it was the kiss of death to an independent film. I kept hoping the audience would still come, but a week later, I was given a four-day notice by the theater owner, breaking our contract." Aside from some initial cable TV airings after the NYC run, a placement as the only American film at the 1985 San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain, and a revival presentation at the 1993 IFFM which put it in concert with newer independents as diverse as Haile Gerima's SANKOFA and Kevin Smith's CLERKS, REACHING OUT would not play commercially in any further cities, enter TV syndication, or be issued on any physical media. And while she made some later attempts, she would not direct another feature film after.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRt6k9DQeAgK0xT7p975lgrUG8i0D0Qev0VpTcjg9sSIEFcNFr6hR1l8k6DucPBJKmImJq7-hOL81DOp14RmTBlp68sPKpTkVeCUqLMdlqbrO-rExTFhPnD0IhtHlZ2LZAXt9E65eAxipzlqMe9YFFqzLHSLcaNDCBxMNNGFVQyp8ooTAExscGMDEh/s580/reachingoutscreening061518flierfront%20(2).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="580" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRt6k9DQeAgK0xT7p975lgrUG8i0D0Qev0VpTcjg9sSIEFcNFr6hR1l8k6DucPBJKmImJq7-hOL81DOp14RmTBlp68sPKpTkVeCUqLMdlqbrO-rExTFhPnD0IhtHlZ2LZAXt9E65eAxipzlqMe9YFFqzLHSLcaNDCBxMNNGFVQyp8ooTAExscGMDEh/w400-h270/reachingoutscreening061518flierfront%20(2).jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Pennell's trajectory after his interlude with Russell delivered a more prolific body of work, but also delivered more difficulties and tragic results that, as even his closest friends would admit, were caused by his own hand. He had earned a development deal with Universal that brought him to Hollywood for two years, but he reportedly did nothing under their aegis but fuck around and find out, He returned to Austin and made another film on a shoestring budget, LAST NIGHT AT THE ALAMO, that was also greeted with critical acclaim - Janet Maslin called it "a ribald and faintly mournful chronicle" and glowingly described how all its characters "all join in cursing, drinking, carousing and otherwise preparing themselves for imminent disaster." Though it also got a substantial expansion from respected distributor Cinecom, it didn't propel him much further than SHOOTIN' MATCH had. After a poor experience directing ICE HOUSE, a vanity project for actor Bo Brinkman and his then-wife Melissa Gilbert, he made two more micro-budgeted films, HEART FULL OF SOUL and DOC'S FULL SERVICE, that did not win the praise or attention of his previous influential features, nor any sort of constructive theatrical play. Amidst this slump, he was descending further into alcoholism and erratic behavior. He became frequently homeless and itinerant, attempting sobriety to little progress, and getting assistance from a dwindling body of enablers. Pennell died in Houston, Texas, a week before what would have been his 50th birthday, on July 21, 2002.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHdd7wkOz5eKqK1zr4L7JylSrdC-_UT00FkuxGQv8KPYo--ZBCXBZk_G-13juu-gPMPBsBv2PJTNwZMQcW2TtAYRpsYqAhP5yZ3ndwmSsd19uCZdRBSowO-vxXJudNTF3zRs4QmlWtIx9XaOGCaAhl-xBaR8-KNEoGeOxnk184fuGD2fjDhNCB6YXz/s998/Eagle-Pennell-Kuper-9-tombstone.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="544" data-original-width="998" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHdd7wkOz5eKqK1zr4L7JylSrdC-_UT00FkuxGQv8KPYo--ZBCXBZk_G-13juu-gPMPBsBv2PJTNwZMQcW2TtAYRpsYqAhP5yZ3ndwmSsd19uCZdRBSowO-vxXJudNTF3zRs4QmlWtIx9XaOGCaAhl-xBaR8-KNEoGeOxnk184fuGD2fjDhNCB6YXz/w400-h217/Eagle-Pennell-Kuper-9-tombstone.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Patricia Russell significantly altered the priority of her life from being an artist (though she was still writing scripts and attending screenings in Los Angeles) to being an advocate for enlightened and humane treatment of mental health in society. Her motivation came from observing her son by Pennell - who, though regularly publicly named in newspaper interviews and on her Facebook posts, will not be identified here to respect his privacy - struggling with the similar troubles of mood swings and substance abuse that his father was notorious for. In <a href="http://www.namiventura.org/uploads/NAMIVentura_June2007.pdf">a 2007 website profile</a> she wrote for the Ventura County branch of NAMI, she elaborated:<br /><br /></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>I don’t know what my life would be like today if I had not found out about NAMI in 2001. A friend of mine, who knew the roller coaster in hell I had been on dealing with my son’s co-occurring disorders of addiction and Bipolar disorder, told me that I should take NAMI’s Family to Family class. I took his advice and was transformed by the experience! </p><p>I learned about his disorders, possible medications, treatment, etc. but most importantly I learned how to become an advocate for my son. I became a fighter to get my son the services he needed to literally survive! I attended the care and share meetings and gained strength and hope from the acceptance and understanding I received. If it wasn’t for our group’s leader, who was there for my son and me during many life-endangering crises, I honestly believe that the outcome would have been different. There are miracles that occur when like-minded loving people come together to be of service. This is what NAMI does.</p><p>Last year I became a NAMI Board member because I want to give back. My life work has been in the film industry as an independent filmmaker. I believe in telling stories that inspire the audience. I have been fortunate to be involved with incredibly talented people as a producer. I also have made my own films, including a feature film called REACHING OUT. I taught myself digital filmmaking and editing because I believe that this gives us the opportunity to tell these stories. I produced a 17-minute video of the first NAMI Walk in 2006, and I’m editing NAMI Walk 2007.</p><p>My son, after seven years of crisis after crisis, has been stable for nine months, holds a job, takes classes, has a sponsor, is part of a spiritual community and is pursuing his dreams. I can’t say enough about NAMI!</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Her NAMI activities yielded her an award for "Family Mental Health Advocate of the Year" by the Los Angeles Mental Health Commission, and served under former Los Angeles D.A. Jackie Lacey on her Criminal Justice Project workgroup for three years, leading to the creation of diversion programs being made available for people who have committed low-level crimes in lieu of incarceration. The sole occasion where REACHING OUT was publicly screened in the noughts was presented by the DMH Service Area Two for "May is Mental Health Awareness Month," held at the Harmony Gold screening room on June 15, 2018.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pSNPZrETyRA" width="320" youtube-src-id="pSNPZrETyRA"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><p>The only readily available public comment Russell made about Pennell after their breakup was posted on June 12, 2012, as a comment on the Arthur Magazine website reprise of Paul Cullum's elegy for the artist. She wrote:</p><p><br /></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"This piece on Eagle really captures him. I’m feeling many emotions. This is brilliant writing. I met Eagle at the US Film Festival in 1978. Eagle is the father of my 33 year old son...My son has so much of Eagle in him. Currently he is in the Hospital. The last time my son and I saw him was in 1987. He came to visit [and] gave him a basketball. I took a photo of them." </p></blockquote><p> </p><p>In a 180° switch from having her birth and childhood reported by the local press, Patricia Russell died on December 2, 2021 in mostly quiet anonymity; while there were Facebook posts from her friends about the passing, no published obituary or registered resting place has been found in my research. In the ten years that she maintained a Facebook account, she never mentioned Pennell in any fashion, but constantly wrote loving and positive updates about their son, posting photos of him looking content and the spitting image of his father. He does not use social media, so his current whereabouts are not known: fates willing, he is healing and healthy and adjusting to living life without his devoted mother.</p><p><br /></p><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEichC1a96avL0yi9PYPvdM9kjPHA-NmkfPH8jAmHzEgXwfLm2057GdV9eiMfNn_wZhUaX6z_RDaup-dLG6z0B6-zxG5DdVtiYYF9vBuJfQLelq5WmIaV-xfKR0CWKa1e7hgp-9AASYqgbVBKY_RFv3L3Q6RaHH-u7pFXOAoz-OKYoEqqC8zUIu3iViS/s1385/PatRussellFBselfie122520.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1385" data-original-width="639" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEichC1a96avL0yi9PYPvdM9kjPHA-NmkfPH8jAmHzEgXwfLm2057GdV9eiMfNn_wZhUaX6z_RDaup-dLG6z0B6-zxG5DdVtiYYF9vBuJfQLelq5WmIaV-xfKR0CWKa1e7hgp-9AASYqgbVBKY_RFv3L3Q6RaHH-u7pFXOAoz-OKYoEqqC8zUIu3iViS/w185-h400/PatRussellFBselfie122520.jpg" width="185" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Facebook photo, posted December 25, 2020</span></div></div><p><br /></p><p>While Russell's lack of acknowledgement of Pennell can be understood and accepted as personal reticence, the near-silence about Russell from the community of friends and film writers who have kept Pennell's life and career in discussion disturbingly feels like wholesale erasure. She was never mentioned in Paul Cullum's essay. She was never mentioned by The Austin Chronicle in <a href="https://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2002-08-30/101273/">any of the testimonies gathered</a> when the publication eulogized him. For a particularly stark example, the 2008 documentary <a href="https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-king-of-texas">THE KING OF TEXAS</a>, directed by Pennell's nephew René Pinnell, provides an ostensibly thorough warts-and-all portrait of the filmmaker, talking to family members, actors, writers, and others about his life. Several examples of his cartoonishly cavalier antics are brought up, including one particularly icky incident at his 1983 wedding involving his new sister-in-law. It makes a laudable effort to not engage in easy hagiography about its subject. However, neither Patricia Russell, or the son Eagle fathered with her, are ever mentioned. </p><p><br /></p><p>I could understand that perhaps in the matter of Patricia, since their relationship was brief and he probably never talked it up much, many of the interviewees hadn't any good anecdotes or insights about her to share - maybe some didn't know about her at all. However, according to the aforementioned historian Alison Macor, Russell did keep in contact with the rest of the Pinnell family, so they would have known about her, and, importantly, the child of his she raised. And I'll go a step further and be willing to consider that Eagle's relatives maybe wanted to not bring too much unwanted attention to a private individual who had little contact with his father. But not even acknowledging that he had a son to begin with...to put it in Texas parlance, that's an omission as serious as the business end of a .45. Since this documentary ultimately exists to pitch the artistic worth of Eagle Pennell to new generations, an impression is left that its producers felt the unfamiliar viewer could sit still for a man bent on self-destruction with a pattern of treating women and collaborators shabbily, but not cotton to a deadbeat dad. </p><p><br /></p><p>For what it's worth, though not identified, Patricia can be seen briefly in the film, in this photograph shown during the segment on the production of THE WHOLE SHOOTIN' MATCH.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKETrGIASUsuPJ5sSZbWPjUnYZJET4yVZEePm1ppi0SZ-OXJtf7S5tZrLrRlyIhNaQJCe0KoTsPZMTbJnFVvqFiof7j6UxdLyiXTlQdzIJBkn7gMctTBe9oh9sZ81duJxy3MzkBI5_FTx1ndjh0_Ce0ETPSKaqOmG2VIYXanJO0sVu5LI_SML6Z9Hg/s1074/ChuckPinellEaglePennellPatRussellLinSutherland.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="602" data-original-width="1074" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKETrGIASUsuPJ5sSZbWPjUnYZJET4yVZEePm1ppi0SZ-OXJtf7S5tZrLrRlyIhNaQJCe0KoTsPZMTbJnFVvqFiof7j6UxdLyiXTlQdzIJBkn7gMctTBe9oh9sZ81duJxy3MzkBI5_FTx1ndjh0_Ce0ETPSKaqOmG2VIYXanJO0sVu5LI_SML6Z9Hg/w400-h224/ChuckPinellEaglePennellPatRussellLinSutherland.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Chuck Pinnell, Eagle Pennell, Patricia Russell, and Lin Sutherland</span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(image from René Pinnell's THE KING OF TEXAS)</span></div><p><br /></p><p>I am not here to call out Eagle Pennell, pass some moral judgment on him, or devalue his body of work. There are plenty of artists with regrettable life choices in their personal ledger whose creations I find vital and worth preserving and sharing. I have never seen any of Pennell's films. And I have never seen Patricia Russell's REACHING OUT. As such, divorced from any truthful way of arguing whether any of these movies achieve or fail at their intended message, let us simply contemplate the following. Pennell, as memorialized by the very people who loved him and preserve his legacy, wasted several opportunities, burned bridges, and yet still was able to rustle up the means to create several films to be remembered by. Whereas Russell, who did start out with some more advantages that Pennell (and probably better people skills), and for a short interval stood on an equal footing with him as an independent filmmaker to watch, only got one grasp at the Big Brass Ring. And that opportunity was cut short by bad reviews for her film...from <i>one </i>engagement in<i> one </i>city. And despite her best efforts, could not rally the kind of interest her former partner commanded to mount another production. All the while, having the additional burden of taking care of the largest mess that he, as a lifelong mess-maker, left behind. We will never know if Russell could have been the Camille Claudel to Pennell's Auguste Rodin. What we do know is he got multiple second chances, and she barely got a first.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Nz7BQ9cV3xxI6iZvNX-Ezb_8_dFJZQBsXMZN0z-_je0SOVs3V-haAI3fcG_upylKYF0vLyjzcrzCqlSKvHUdAJUKXGSjCLjbtS4OCFbswgChHGHWs3Nj6f23nbTpZL5Rww6wcXbMCd-MVweE5JKW6JoSR0myneaU8W8MUIHtiyz63SIqXiwHLi0U/s600/reachingoutprintad.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="546" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Nz7BQ9cV3xxI6iZvNX-Ezb_8_dFJZQBsXMZN0z-_je0SOVs3V-haAI3fcG_upylKYF0vLyjzcrzCqlSKvHUdAJUKXGSjCLjbtS4OCFbswgChHGHWs3Nj6f23nbTpZL5Rww6wcXbMCd-MVweE5JKW6JoSR0myneaU8W8MUIHtiyz63SIqXiwHLi0U/w364-h400/reachingoutprintad.jpg" width="364" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>The ideal adjustment to balance this particular inequity would be to pull REACHING OUT from the limbo it sits in, and for an innovative film programmer, physical media label, or streaming platform (or hey, why not all of the above) to assist in getting it back into circulation, so it can be appraised by a larger and more thoughtful body of viewers than it found on its previous too-brief release. I am hoping either her son or extended family, as part of her estate, have seen fit to keep the elements safe. Perhaps it will be better received. Or maybe it will still be met with a shrug, Either way, Pennell's CV will still have the higher profile, but maybe those films he made after his time with Russell could be analyzed with a new and interesting context. </p><p><br /></p><p>Writing at length about a woman you never met, who directed a movie you never saw, to elevate her to an audience you don't know even exists, well, that's kind of a fool's errand. But then, this is the story of a woman who found herself effectively bound for life with someone who, in the parlance of Neil Diamond, was a fool who dreamt of being a king, and after an ignominious death, became one. Why shouldn't she have another fool like myself acting on her behalf?</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrg8sAvT5aRXdqWmTCPif8fP4sGJI5uziXk9Yro4O51U0eksNVQ8-rMpb4_qqYoMrfVYgrB1M7NeIBv-YHwXyQKTMpgkrcEfznPQY9w8BoPVc7GXbrn18MpD3yWv0V7odPqhwQrGAPO1PZ3wTJSnC-3_29FK2Coetd-_CY9e4NUEdx-_jnkmV3dtAI/s879/PatRussellFBselfie072819.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="879" data-original-width="879" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrg8sAvT5aRXdqWmTCPif8fP4sGJI5uziXk9Yro4O51U0eksNVQ8-rMpb4_qqYoMrfVYgrB1M7NeIBv-YHwXyQKTMpgkrcEfznPQY9w8BoPVc7GXbrn18MpD3yWv0V7odPqhwQrGAPO1PZ3wTJSnC-3_29FK2Coetd-_CY9e4NUEdx-_jnkmV3dtAI/s320/PatRussellFBselfie072819.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Facebook photo, posted July 28, 2019</span></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Patricia Ann Russell</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>June 10, 1943 – December 2, 2021</b></p><p><br /></p></div>Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-55435536606916457302022-12-25T04:07:00.002-08:002022-12-25T04:18:43.392-08:00Qui êtes-vous, 2022?<p style="text-align: left;">Ostensibly, 2022 presented me to the world as a man of leisure, if not yet of influence. I am in the happy position of not having to do a damned thing that I don't care to, at least not in anyone else's service. There are things I would have just as soon rather not done, such as the surprises left dormant by the previous occupant of my childhood home that I had to reckon with. But today, I can shrug, settle the matter, and move on comfortably. That is a luxury I did not have not so long ago, and I am a lucky man to be in this state of being, especially when far too many are not.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">I would love to tell you about what particularly made 2022 a special year for me, but...</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-L_BBN7qlKBzsMDlFaKUbaPfJCKbZoFll5WiGjn_pVdTqHQDjdxF6DJ7-54hNyAbpquK2cx-w512sXCGEYpg-hJYEI47jHKVe2u1lgwWgLufH7Ah_4IgveyM5X-6gWaRGwSgU5qH6ySvAsS8iuxgWKsgqXrn2UnB1gOJC7ZGWv9BWf8etf0BlLdWU/s612/nondisclosureagreementgraphic.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="612" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-L_BBN7qlKBzsMDlFaKUbaPfJCKbZoFll5WiGjn_pVdTqHQDjdxF6DJ7-54hNyAbpquK2cx-w512sXCGEYpg-hJYEI47jHKVe2u1lgwWgLufH7Ah_4IgveyM5X-6gWaRGwSgU5qH6ySvAsS8iuxgWKsgqXrn2UnB1gOJC7ZGWv9BWf8etf0BlLdWU/w400-h269/nondisclosureagreementgraphic.jpg" width="400" /></a></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">...you'll just have to trust me, it was really awesome.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoqzl4N8U6nlTsRd0pkQb1GiUTbQfpkQEuArmuJJEhu01puYbG8sru47aVny9Xvq6tXk7tfdDhaFZxLD1HnFHDnBVM25FZlRVEhCPdOpAN66b26oeFMlulBdP59suR_DKrbAItQF1r4SS8_w3u32K6lHsKrX02QFo_1B3wMmPwDqnfinYjMwF4ZWze/s2346/returnofcaptaininvincibleSeverincover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2346" data-original-width="1919" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoqzl4N8U6nlTsRd0pkQb1GiUTbQfpkQEuArmuJJEhu01puYbG8sru47aVny9Xvq6tXk7tfdDhaFZxLD1HnFHDnBVM25FZlRVEhCPdOpAN66b26oeFMlulBdP59suR_DKrbAItQF1r4SS8_w3u32K6lHsKrX02QFo_1B3wMmPwDqnfinYjMwF4ZWze/w262-h320/returnofcaptaininvincibleSeverincover.jpg" width="262" /></a>I <i>can</i> talk about a smaller but respectively awesome event: after lobbying what seemed in vain for over a decade, I was able to witness my valued friend Philippe Mora saw his wonderfully eccentric and earnest 1983 film THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN INVINCIBLE - <a href="https://projectorhasbeendrinking.blogspot.com/2010/09/for-all-of-you-out-there-who-still.html">a film I've gone to the mat for going two decades</a> - get <a href="https://severinfilms.com/collections/blu-ray/products/the-return-of-captain-invincible-3-disc-blu-ray-cd">the bells-and-whistles Blu-Ray edition it's deserved</a>. And I had the honor of conducting a long-form, full-career interview with him that is among the bonus features on this release. I relish any opportunity to speak for posterity on physical media, and I've long wanted to contribute to the legacy of tremendous presentations that the Severin label is known for.</p><p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;">But in the immortally mangled words of the otherwise forgotten Jane & Goodman Ace, you have to take the bitter with the batter. And one of the harsh millstones of living past 50 is the rise in obits that affect you directly. There was way too much loss in my life. A high school crush died. Several artists I revered died. And two important friends in my regular life died.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW1owIT5oUMUDXStKrCEFGQoMBjEv0F1Ipy-YWGFApnxxSyrdbLoZ57fu2bMnkci94jbUqGqnStkB_qD_lIq3ud05qVgSH5N3fMhLMiqB1I1zZ4hjt2HIltuvpp-4OibfRJQfjVpx4Y683fW65Jv0po72vaHXIyikpKtMyPOTzTZoTt1x2UWiPL-v3/s960/ClupresidentLeeMarvin.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW1owIT5oUMUDXStKrCEFGQoMBjEv0F1Ipy-YWGFApnxxSyrdbLoZ57fu2bMnkci94jbUqGqnStkB_qD_lIq3ud05qVgSH5N3fMhLMiqB1I1zZ4hjt2HIltuvpp-4OibfRJQfjVpx4Y683fW65Jv0po72vaHXIyikpKtMyPOTzTZoTt1x2UWiPL-v3/w249-h332/ClupresidentLeeMarvin.jpg" width="249" /></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;">Clu Gulager was one of the first people I grew up watching on TV who, when I made the pilgrimage to Los Angeles, I had the outstanding fortune to befriend. If you ever found yourself driving around Hollywood, or having a late snack at Canter's or Astro Burger, or catching a midnight movie, you likely crossed paths with him.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Native American<br />Gallant cowboy<br />Generous actor<br />Genial raconteur<br />Fearless artist<br />Innovative teacher<br />L.A. legend</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">In a properly spiritual world, every cinema should keep a front row seat empty for Clu Gulager, like having a seat for Elijah at the Passover seder.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVDcAyOQOk1dbcj5n9npqhUxaCfTAknLjEzElB3kVz4eW8VD_vWCcBqBKSGqGA8EvhHKsYZxrfFSy7_Hz5WV-Hm8tw0wrIJov10C-3qmUoRPecwy-84iMUlS3U0dW3ucy-AbKVwSY-KPjT_m4IPck1k5X896TGQUbgyBi2JQ5k6nB9_qdIS7zNP4bX/s432/billolsenfundraiser.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="432" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVDcAyOQOk1dbcj5n9npqhUxaCfTAknLjEzElB3kVz4eW8VD_vWCcBqBKSGqGA8EvhHKsYZxrfFSy7_Hz5WV-Hm8tw0wrIJov10C-3qmUoRPecwy-84iMUlS3U0dW3ucy-AbKVwSY-KPjT_m4IPck1k5X896TGQUbgyBi2JQ5k6nB9_qdIS7zNP4bX/w289-h241/billolsenfundraiser.jpg" width="289" /></a>When it often seemed like every physical media label had their own in-house version of me already to work on their special features, Bill Olsen gave me opportunity when nobody else wanted me, and I owe him. I've had a long, wild history with him and his Code Red Blu/DVD label, involving a lot of loud late night phone calls, effectively <a href="https://projectorhasbeendrinking.blogspot.com/2011/11/hat-meet-hand-has-anyone-seen-silver.html">begging for his cinematic scraps to build my exposure</a>, and having to helplessly watch him try to burn every bridge in the home video business. But as Harlan Ellison once observed, when you've been made an outcast, you are always angry. And Bill was, well, mostly known for his outbursts, living his life like a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spite_house">spite house</a>. We would yell at each other, and a minute later be laughing at old inside jokes. He didn't have a lot of friends, so the fact that I kept his trust and he mostly had my back was important to us both. And as I got what precious few insights I could into his background, I think the only reciprocated love he ever had in his life was with the movies. </p><p><br /></p><p>Passings weren't limited to the corporeal realm. My house boiler died. My garage plumbing had been long dead, I learned too late, which led to some crazy winter flooding, which almost killed the car sitting inside it. That car died later last summer of unrelated engine issues. But again, when confronted, I mutter, then I laugh, then I fix the problem. 'tis what grown-ups do.</p><p><br /></p><p>And after a' that, I went to the movies. A lot. And from there, comes The Top 13 of 2022.</p><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>13. (tie) X + PEARL<br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV9hIsq_jwMZThArR3hHmp__Iz7b5S-JwdIzJ6NFPQL1LHilfsXhE8m2MoH7MHiBBpPjapCNDPTC5IBJbrNMkeSw0zwboFUOxbw_azwe_e6s-Yj7Sze374Md_-Rl-2WY7T9Mq6cn5SgLuXPsn0wxd9QBxnbWx7BG7V3uaYyJjajqN_0-0ZeQ70UzVg/s1399/miagothmaxxxinepearl.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="697" data-original-width="1399" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV9hIsq_jwMZThArR3hHmp__Iz7b5S-JwdIzJ6NFPQL1LHilfsXhE8m2MoH7MHiBBpPjapCNDPTC5IBJbrNMkeSw0zwboFUOxbw_azwe_e6s-Yj7Sze374Md_-Rl-2WY7T9Mq6cn5SgLuXPsn0wxd9QBxnbWx7BG7V3uaYyJjajqN_0-0ZeQ70UzVg/w400-h199/miagothmaxxxinepearl.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>12. THE FABELMANS</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDT7yRGqqRg_FW83MCAc1V6NWygi4sNiu8htZo4tgFfHqz-OT-i1fgOkM47e2UBtVOBGfZex8fesnviR4pYlE8fkKyretRVlaJ3Vr0J2R1t6Qe9Dda0oX0Z1tK86Y-XV_CwFlv2CJXVNtwhicXN9G97S4yWvL487j3-80oirC7fh0VCPmp03ZTz_0A/s2048/fabelmans.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1074" data-original-width="2048" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDT7yRGqqRg_FW83MCAc1V6NWygi4sNiu8htZo4tgFfHqz-OT-i1fgOkM47e2UBtVOBGfZex8fesnviR4pYlE8fkKyretRVlaJ3Vr0J2R1t6Qe9Dda0oX0Z1tK86Y-XV_CwFlv2CJXVNtwhicXN9G97S4yWvL487j3-80oirC7fh0VCPmp03ZTz_0A/w400-h210/fabelmans.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>11. AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVbCDXVaT2Dz_e9CxF9eSX_FA0LiN9sWp-dVNhN3ozRNvvsvmSFG2WsrkPIvPogQzgkVFG18gNS6caSCnrFVWHJf06Rqd0TJP2dgJGMGoTUn8JklOGEjRUNadnSC74fAvDjvCkdHNpEE4vpSFvtIM-Ig6rUGHyBR6n_Ec1sZIpOqGhp5kAnv6qyA5a/s2665/avatar-the-way-of-water.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1190" data-original-width="2665" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVbCDXVaT2Dz_e9CxF9eSX_FA0LiN9sWp-dVNhN3ozRNvvsvmSFG2WsrkPIvPogQzgkVFG18gNS6caSCnrFVWHJf06Rqd0TJP2dgJGMGoTUn8JklOGEjRUNadnSC74fAvDjvCkdHNpEE4vpSFvtIM-Ig6rUGHyBR6n_Ec1sZIpOqGhp5kAnv6qyA5a/w400-h179/avatar-the-way-of-water.png" width="400" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>10. BROS</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS1ZEvLfzxOz46GYUxkOZ9W9lKal2bG9sLIWaPBCIb8tvIp-1iso9nfdF84P9SIxHpcAzy-CLG3W6xtKZYISbdaWs47nf0YficLCoD9tq5wsdeVfC7ppXuw9flfdoTbyYXnu4Zvt7z8HVioFZMJ3U4GOaph9TKfNALVAFaGxZJjcFjCNyt9DsoHrwK/s700/Bros-thumb-700xauto-244889.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="700" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS1ZEvLfzxOz46GYUxkOZ9W9lKal2bG9sLIWaPBCIb8tvIp-1iso9nfdF84P9SIxHpcAzy-CLG3W6xtKZYISbdaWs47nf0YficLCoD9tq5wsdeVfC7ppXuw9flfdoTbyYXnu4Zvt7z8HVioFZMJ3U4GOaph9TKfNALVAFaGxZJjcFjCNyt9DsoHrwK/w400-h168/Bros-thumb-700xauto-244889.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>9. THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW2QerN1T0FzAf-VsSxh4eVucD9IM5819FdM_Bxi5598Wp51CidNE2LLb_yIz7Jia-PkZv4bWAfm53lySVusvuc8KFwRcE5JK7lFfkgNX_v-AtvsMjrJ4AQLReNr5t6hpzRkvwbdML_gtPSR_05R2B_AmcDeJKhtL2aZLNKMkFUU_b0h--PYdpetJF/s1439/bansheesofinisherin.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1439" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW2QerN1T0FzAf-VsSxh4eVucD9IM5819FdM_Bxi5598Wp51CidNE2LLb_yIz7Jia-PkZv4bWAfm53lySVusvuc8KFwRcE5JK7lFfkgNX_v-AtvsMjrJ4AQLReNr5t6hpzRkvwbdML_gtPSR_05R2B_AmcDeJKhtL2aZLNKMkFUU_b0h--PYdpetJF/w400-h166/bansheesofinisherin.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>8. </b><b>A LOVE SONG</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC0dLEosZF0I_7gGzVWp7DBgwuSIiVTf8ppxWb7g6q3TllZrPBDdmVP9s_YrJNpqZqtpAYADpOElwED4X73Ne4if1to4x6YMhsQChNBxRFLJLitn8-OI1seCpoDcYPmVgVFxf4JkIlXuG_9FOwDSfppCyNi254y6W-Ria6MeHFDqkW4OkrK85kYqtX/s1024/alovesongduetmoment.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="620" data-original-width="1024" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC0dLEosZF0I_7gGzVWp7DBgwuSIiVTf8ppxWb7g6q3TllZrPBDdmVP9s_YrJNpqZqtpAYADpOElwED4X73Ne4if1to4x6YMhsQChNBxRFLJLitn8-OI1seCpoDcYPmVgVFxf4JkIlXuG_9FOwDSfppCyNi254y6W-Ria6MeHFDqkW4OkrK85kYqtX/w400-h243/alovesongduetmoment.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>7. THE BLACK PHONE</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ6vQaEO09BT41KshKqY2b7w31I_1CDCjSX-fAaPPQfhDbbnU7bmaamtXKCfCL3wQ1EegkxPB34qjA0iEzUJnufe8K-HJXFyl0QB04upfZltzC87-iezhr095Gv-SiYoOasv8NgBx0lb27r076TmYmX6wTZJmj0_ZZKHw7MdnwYZwEu4sBhUMQtQiy/s1340/blackphone-gweninterrogation.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="1340" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ6vQaEO09BT41KshKqY2b7w31I_1CDCjSX-fAaPPQfhDbbnU7bmaamtXKCfCL3wQ1EegkxPB34qjA0iEzUJnufe8K-HJXFyl0QB04upfZltzC87-iezhr095Gv-SiYoOasv8NgBx0lb27r076TmYmX6wTZJmj0_ZZKHw7MdnwYZwEu4sBhUMQtQiy/w400-h165/blackphone-gweninterrogation.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>6. AFTERSUN</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoEIV0dOu2KmhYFEVRAQNnJHmvljaXHDRW-wJcXaIWV70cGNBBEGb-O_jBRiSL9WDCkj19u-AXrwyUSoL6RDQ8hh7RUCljGY_CPNsOMpfD2gUHKC2ACV58fv0nPlWUTe37z5uWzTpQIP4qNDyFzuw5z_8_Dlhui64ShMmexTty_AMufj-i6a4MBI2j/s780/aftersununderwatercamera.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="780" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoEIV0dOu2KmhYFEVRAQNnJHmvljaXHDRW-wJcXaIWV70cGNBBEGb-O_jBRiSL9WDCkj19u-AXrwyUSoL6RDQ8hh7RUCljGY_CPNsOMpfD2gUHKC2ACV58fv0nPlWUTe37z5uWzTpQIP4qNDyFzuw5z_8_Dlhui64ShMmexTty_AMufj-i6a4MBI2j/w400-h225/aftersununderwatercamera.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>5. HIT THE ROAD</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlHhp5MynFPqgv7jYNBRbDrZ2XMLMFzO04jDtZzlrx5IOIaiLQcYRE-0lKo4mUY5lajwW-IdkJLD_m4-HcQQRNhpD2BMc937_WFv5LojilL6k6ZuiQruePtGI2PJG5pkPm3K6JYpO6Truv4nj-I3YDZ8O-hMANDplt9CXnBI0boqtjL0fs2OX5r7I6/s1333/hit-the-road-5.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1333" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlHhp5MynFPqgv7jYNBRbDrZ2XMLMFzO04jDtZzlrx5IOIaiLQcYRE-0lKo4mUY5lajwW-IdkJLD_m4-HcQQRNhpD2BMc937_WFv5LojilL6k6ZuiQruePtGI2PJG5pkPm3K6JYpO6Truv4nj-I3YDZ8O-hMANDplt9CXnBI0boqtjL0fs2OX5r7I6/w400-h225/hit-the-road-5.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>4. WOMEN TALKING</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin14vWfYHvL67tdoB-c-dxBTTzIaGEAXBY7L5LoCfD8Jyebnpq7zBswKq51aOGl0NZ9VTShMSt2lPFRAxxWZNGDgLI6Ay_k3b49byD-QBcgiXGwf5YWSqXSRWfBPiIxrbFSNgR7M64LXYYVaIn5Y6t8AbJbOtuOQqJwK_bfUFpLZRNJTDimo7rrs6m/s1273/womentalkingsunrise.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="455" data-original-width="1273" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin14vWfYHvL67tdoB-c-dxBTTzIaGEAXBY7L5LoCfD8Jyebnpq7zBswKq51aOGl0NZ9VTShMSt2lPFRAxxWZNGDgLI6Ay_k3b49byD-QBcgiXGwf5YWSqXSRWfBPiIxrbFSNgR7M64LXYYVaIn5Y6t8AbJbOtuOQqJwK_bfUFpLZRNJTDimo7rrs6m/w400-h143/womentalkingsunrise.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>3. TÁR</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnfzxBrkLCbJFsnsJRR7Ez0UT15URJ30XUH1f54-x84Un62l10pEoyxigz4N187uIy1DfPXtlmo8iSCPJtD-MAnt5zJ-grCQLwsZxDyGsHGhw1RTs7BZRlnOtztcJi0BBP03r1_rOI_dkpwrCUVNb4C_QrZsKGZ03jQ_voSlMXfDalMGUiY9WjWiGD/s856/tarscatteredrecords.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="856" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnfzxBrkLCbJFsnsJRR7Ez0UT15URJ30XUH1f54-x84Un62l10pEoyxigz4N187uIy1DfPXtlmo8iSCPJtD-MAnt5zJ-grCQLwsZxDyGsHGhw1RTs7BZRlnOtztcJi0BBP03r1_rOI_dkpwrCUVNb4C_QrZsKGZ03jQ_voSlMXfDalMGUiY9WjWiGD/w400-h168/tarscatteredrecords.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>2. RRR</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiminFbtr54im3xQGkU-pNiasF0cEgVgxRfju-V7PKnQaN4mxFbL_-lVHEde6rHIeB4mToLXyyXQJcTXxRuYVsZRaiRF0Brb-BW3HgBvt21CcqAtgnmjnV8CgNewKa7VF4ScBZEJKgLrhU44Fk1fMPtzI51bcSsC3HCGb63WK5cHKICdrYMSnRraKcJ/s1920/RRRlionconfrontation.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="819" data-original-width="1920" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiminFbtr54im3xQGkU-pNiasF0cEgVgxRfju-V7PKnQaN4mxFbL_-lVHEde6rHIeB4mToLXyyXQJcTXxRuYVsZRaiRF0Brb-BW3HgBvt21CcqAtgnmjnV8CgNewKa7VF4ScBZEJKgLrhU44Fk1fMPtzI51bcSsC3HCGb63WK5cHKICdrYMSnRraKcJ/w400-h171/RRRlionconfrontation.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>1. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjudgqbVImXbMrVDbMXi-SDlSHAUioqGWmX61zuKYoYiojhQAZf-comsKKRPlFHPvNWHUvSH3mHwMU6gBTGn0Ghq31syt_4Jb1y9Pu3JEEJho6c95oz4xROjDxSCbQtU4ApHuKvYpYa8rl2WD29_pSfWWdYJoZ3iPQAKLwwcN1A4SWLd3CybL6yd-fB/s1282/EEAOCfallingrocks.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="691" data-original-width="1282" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjudgqbVImXbMrVDbMXi-SDlSHAUioqGWmX61zuKYoYiojhQAZf-comsKKRPlFHPvNWHUvSH3mHwMU6gBTGn0Ghq31syt_4Jb1y9Pu3JEEJho6c95oz4xROjDxSCbQtU4ApHuKvYpYa8rl2WD29_pSfWWdYJoZ3iPQAKLwwcN1A4SWLd3CybL6yd-fB/w400-h215/EEAOCfallingrocks.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>"We need to laugh, we need to be scared, we need to hug our girl in the theater. It lightens the load of this crummy life."</b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>"Those with obsessions never learn. Those with a compulsion to make films are fucked in the beginning, fucked in the middle, and fucked in the end. You can call it madness, you can call it being an artist, or you can call it ruining your life. But we have not learned one God-damned thing."</b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiehCwzox7JY14x7Shq8k-EskS92KAAy6_AiJ6KYmz0BE7POf1n-c1Nsms3w0bPZQOav4Uxeb52nSL5LpyY1PAow78ugzmMr3-B5CJku8xVXtHdkWRPqCSymoxz9mPt8jZMj3UxD9AiPSPP4jISVYeJi2QNyDuVSnRXb3TbF3M-oNScDHX_jtRo0UsX/s5616/cluIMG_2398.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3744" data-original-width="5616" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiehCwzox7JY14x7Shq8k-EskS92KAAy6_AiJ6KYmz0BE7POf1n-c1Nsms3w0bPZQOav4Uxeb52nSL5LpyY1PAow78ugzmMr3-B5CJku8xVXtHdkWRPqCSymoxz9mPt8jZMj3UxD9AiPSPP4jISVYeJi2QNyDuVSnRXb3TbF3M-oNScDHX_jtRo0UsX/w400-h266/cluIMG_2398.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">- <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/08/clu-gulager-actor-dies-at-93">Clu Gulager</a>. November 16, 1928 – August 5, 2022</div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-14447926946388016332022-08-03T11:31:00.000-07:002022-08-03T11:31:16.317-07:00"Stay tuned...and keep the calls coming!"<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8C8MRbCuzHlqlOpYyQ2u5kZPSAXaye5n7GS3P7itNgK6fQmDiDJFzGw00fvdOZcTQIzGZnrPe-T4yPNO0t-E0qGymWfX5TlBbK9h2RKUO7Mt99rIhrkDqo9MXPD0AEsh0ORqbiNRdNlw7kkU2cxgDoe4G9XYtsMtyPu-Y-akFMvhEnLbE6HTJ2Z6k/s5000/blackphone-finnreceiver.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2095" data-original-width="5000" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8C8MRbCuzHlqlOpYyQ2u5kZPSAXaye5n7GS3P7itNgK6fQmDiDJFzGw00fvdOZcTQIzGZnrPe-T4yPNO0t-E0qGymWfX5TlBbK9h2RKUO7Mt99rIhrkDqo9MXPD0AEsh0ORqbiNRdNlw7kkU2cxgDoe4G9XYtsMtyPu-Y-akFMvhEnLbE6HTJ2Z6k/w400-h168/blackphone-finnreceiver.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A preface: The following essay will be detailing almost every major plot revelation in THE BLACK PHONE, as well as that from other well-known films by the same director. I don't personally believe that knowing all the details will ever hurt a first-time viewing of a movie if the story is good and the direction well-executed, and this particular film is less about its surprise revelations and more about how it reaches conclusion, but there is definitely a specific pleasure to be obtained from going into discovering a previously unviewed film with a blank slate. So use that information as you will...</span></div><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Can you hear what I've been thinking<br />Do you hear my words out loud<br />Cause there's an echo that's insisting<br />That this here phone should ring about now<br />But when it does, it rings, no questions<br />Then when it don't, I wonder why<br />Maybe I'm somewhere you can't reach me<br />On this dark and lonely night</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>- Terry Reid, "<a href="https://youtu.be/pd63GVczu-8">Faith to Arise</a>"</b></div><p><br /></p><p>Writer/director Scott Derrickson has maintained a singular presence in a crowded field of auteurs, by delivering a consistent flow of entertaining films in the horror and fantasy genres, and more importantly, imbuing them with significant themes on and questions about believing in forces other than what's knowable in the corporeal realm. In a business where its most visible talent either cautiously avoid discussing religious practice, or cravenly make it their entire brand at the expense of any nuance, he frequently expounds unvarnished on his life as a Christian, from his conversion to Evangelical fundamentalism in youth, expanding into larger ecumenism in adulthood, and his present of, <a href="http://decentfilms.com/articles/interview-scott-derrickson">as he told the National Catholic Register</a>, being more of a general mystic, but carrying a rosary and a G.K. Chesterton book almost all the time. And in full disclosure, I have enjoyed congenial correspondence with the artist for several years, and had the privilege of securing him to introduce one of my series of "Cinema Tremens" screenings in 2014.</p><p><br /></p><p>There have been two dominant collaborators in Derrickson's filmography, each assisting in getting across ideas that have mattered to him. His first writing partner, Paul Harris Boardman, can be associated with his most overtly Christian-driven narratives - HELLRAISER: INFERNO, THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE, DELIVER US FROM EVIL, while his current writing partner, C. Robert Cargill, has helped steer the more general supernatural tales - SINISTER, DOCTOR STRANGE, and their current hit film, THE BLACK PHONE. Barring the disawowed Pinhead installment (as a certain "SCTV" sketch might say, "Was this box in fact, HELL???"), all these films have conveyed Derrickson's concepts of morality and the varying degrees of what happens when it is compromised. </p><p><br /></p><p>While <a href="https://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2022/07/scott-derrickson-interview.html">he recently stated to writer Walter Chaw</a>, "I haven't made any movies with happy endings. They're always really bleak," in the opinion of this writer, it's not so much that they're unhappy or bleak, but they don't neatly wrap everything in the kind of clean finish that most films...and indeed, some branches of Christianity...often promise; there's a mess to be reckoned with after the credits roll. In the Christian stories written with Boardman, God's glory is served as demon possessions are thwarted, but one priest is found guilty of negligent homicide, a detective causes the death of his partner while his wife and child are traumatized by abduction, and nobody comes back from the netherworld. In the first two outings with Cargill, both protagonists - played by actors made up to bear a striking resemblance to Derrickson - give in to hubris, believing themselves smarter than the unknown forces they're investigating, and while one is completely consumed while the other survives, they both have facilitated the continuation of chaos they thought could be tamed. Sadly, on occasion this conundrum has bled into his real life: as he elaborated to Chaw, two years after the life-changing success of DOCTOR STRANGE, "my house burned down in [the Woodley] wildfire and my wife and I of many years separated and divorced very shortly after that. It was really hard, so hard..."</p><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>"[I] thought one day when I was depressed, you know when you’re real depressed and you see everything comes to nothing, well, I thought, maybe I ought to take a different approach, and write [something] that, instead of directed at people, would somehow musically induce God into giving us all a break, cause I was getting a little fed up by this point. So...I’d like to [give this to] you in the hope that you’ll get a break.”</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b><b>- Judee Sill, <a href="https://youtu.be/BE4c3ZlCWmQ">introduction to</a> "<a href="https://youtu.be/PTi1d1x9Mlk">The Donor</a>" for the BBC, 1972</b></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh6wQB5MVcpTqOZUs-zN8Vx9AgoviLOHz-tu5iRFVioVT7to3jjUXJxVGIPkFfJG5rR_REFivpOQ3BIlTeAVtwqopJjGYL14nAzXOucXP30LDb8pyZbFHAFy9qK0j__TUphcddBx3JyZF_9qyJXzi0pE6-2JTlRkxHiGKsrgFv-a1PAOsII1AbtNH9/s1182/blackphone-trailertitletreatment.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="1182" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh6wQB5MVcpTqOZUs-zN8Vx9AgoviLOHz-tu5iRFVioVT7to3jjUXJxVGIPkFfJG5rR_REFivpOQ3BIlTeAVtwqopJjGYL14nAzXOucXP30LDb8pyZbFHAFy9qK0j__TUphcddBx3JyZF_9qyJXzi0pE6-2JTlRkxHiGKsrgFv-a1PAOsII1AbtNH9/w400-h171/blackphone-trailertitletreatment.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p>THE BLACK PHONE, Derrickson's newest release, again co-scripted with Robert Cargill from the 2004 short story by Joe Hill, in principle continues exploring his favorite topics - folklore, cruelty, and faith - but takes several new approaches on their depiction. It is his first film that, barring its lead villain, focuses almost entirely on child protagonists. It is his first set in the past, rather than the present tense of his previous stories. There is supernatural activity, but all violence visited upon its characters are acts of free will by humans. And while it is unflinching in its dramatization of family abuse, bullying, psychological torture, and catatonic fear, it is the first Derrickson film that does not leave a mess behind to linger on; God has finally granted the hero a break.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJvc4uY7TTZvLNUKCt4Uo8IHbTuM1QwoKNPN9frdbhLvtlJj0f8eAxFLyX_2RQk0vwVX1CbEqlGi5YWBzvA29Z0WK-u9RrXRUVArD0x_rGai3VSq579zabgPvSY5u2MlwTJ2CQ-QV9OrxJIt2uNKpMutJtqJw-WJi67PxPnjH6guFOs1t07E_WUtYS/s900/blackphone-victimvisualization.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="900" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJvc4uY7TTZvLNUKCt4Uo8IHbTuM1QwoKNPN9frdbhLvtlJj0f8eAxFLyX_2RQk0vwVX1CbEqlGi5YWBzvA29Z0WK-u9RrXRUVArD0x_rGai3VSq579zabgPvSY5u2MlwTJ2CQ-QV9OrxJIt2uNKpMutJtqJw-WJi67PxPnjH6guFOs1t07E_WUtYS/w400-h168/blackphone-victimvisualization.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>In a Denver suburb during 1978, shy tweener kid Finney Blake (Mason Thames) and his brasher younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) endure steady beatings from a trio of bullies at school and from their anguished alcoholic father (Jeremy Davies) at home. They have heard accounts of a rumored local child abductor called The Grabber (Ethan Hawke), and his threat looms harder over them when two of Finney's schoolmates go missing. Gwen, in recounting dreams she has had about the kidnappings to others, describes details not disclosed to the public, which leads desperate police to interrogate her while having misgivings about her claims. Finney himself ultimately gets taken by The Grabber, and is imprisoned in a barren, soundproof basement. Already feeling mostly cowed by antagonists, he now faces his ultimate enemy - one who cannot be hidden from, deferred to, bargained with, tricked, or moved - and is almost resigned to the worst. Until an old, otherwise disconnected wall phone, regularly rings just for him, with the voices of previous Grabber victims instructing him on various ways of making an escape. Concurrently, Gwen, unaware of Finney's incidents, senses more details about the crimes, at times almost overlapping visions with him, and sets out to determine if what she's seen is real. But after all Finney's attempts have failed, and he recognizes his captor is ready to finish this grim charade, he'll need to tap into his own spirit rather than the ones beyond him. And Gwen must find order in the chaos of her manifestations - or else. All of these events taking place in a decade where, even today, one of the biggest questions taking place within was whether the children were growing up too fast. </p><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b> Help me find my proper place</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br />Help me in my weakness<br />'Cos I'm falling out of grace</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>- The Velvet Underground, "<a href="https://youtu.be/_quyxI4hIOk">Jesus</a>"</b></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Going against his previous films whose stories frequently involve long-forgotten arcana about secret societies and deities, there is a brilliant and ruthless simplicity to THE BLACK PHONE in its near-lack of back story. There are references to trauma The Grabber himself was subject to in his childhood, and the suicide of the Blake family's mother when her own powers of prophesy became overwhelming, but they ultimately do not come into play; no digging through dusty books or microfiche, no ancient relics once lost now found. When Finney and Gwen have their flashes to the past moments of the missing boys, witnessing lives they did not otherwise know intimate details about, they are not so much finding clues as they are placing themselves in the shoes of the fallen, building empathy. At the core, this is a straightforward scary tale of survival where each moment matters *right now*, and in many cases, will unexpectedly matter later on. And as all the victims testify to losing memory of their names first, retaining only details of their confinement or their ties to the siblings, it is their job to remember for them to the living world.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Personal memory permeates this film more than perhaps any other Derrickson film and screenplay. Upon first reading Hill's minimalist tale, it became a personal mission for him to adapt it, <a href="https://www.slashfilm.com/899369/the-black-phone-director-scott-derrickson-knows-horror-is-all-about-the-timing-interview/">telling SlashFilm's Jacob Hall</a>, "I had thought about Joe's story for a long time, over 15 years I was trying to do it. And I had given it to my writing partner Cargill, and he loved it too...toward the end of working on the sequel to DOCTOR STRANGE and then stepping off of it, I had been in therapy for three years dealing with the traumatic nature of my own childhood, and just the violence that I experienced, and violence in my home and my neighborhood, the bullying, just the kind of place that I grew up. And I felt that I could take all of that and merge it with Joe's story, and have something really powerful. [The] most terrifying difficult scene to watch in the movie is the whipping, and that happened to me all the time as a kid, and a lot of other kids in my neighborhood. That was pretty standard for that time, for the late '70s. And so the idea, ultimately, of making a movie about childhood trauma and the resilience of children became — it's a horror film and a coming-of-age film."</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOinYvq3LKRUHIF8AUQ5DqB_YevNp752G2pknDt41XYLg2h8mLfTK0LzDGgiisA8fxnFBL5Cq-ok_3nscRhK6aYsBCrC3CEvBsJ_c1mZ9ZHo36jlRY-DG9T_0d9wQIhJbbvaNr8xiHL5JdGpY2pul_OhcDhdkJztrsPFnLRZdgaNNfngmYKNyYibfD/s1910/blackphone-watchingthetingler.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1910" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOinYvq3LKRUHIF8AUQ5DqB_YevNp752G2pknDt41XYLg2h8mLfTK0LzDGgiisA8fxnFBL5Cq-ok_3nscRhK6aYsBCrC3CEvBsJ_c1mZ9ZHo36jlRY-DG9T_0d9wQIhJbbvaNr8xiHL5JdGpY2pul_OhcDhdkJztrsPFnLRZdgaNNfngmYKNyYibfD/w400-h168/blackphone-watchingthetingler.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Lest these details make the film sound unbearably grim, there is a frequent and therapeutic amount of levity throughout the story. There is warm and funny banter between the siblings and their friends, discussing such solemn topics as toughest kid in school rankings, who's the best TV heartthrob, or the better "forbidden" adult action movie to sneak a look at. Totems of the 70s are used sparingly but smartly, with darkly humorous moments as Finney watching William Castle's THE TINGLER (specifically, the scene when a mute woman is attacked by the creature, telegraphing his own impending imprisonment of silence), or when Robin's abduction is followed by a TV screen broadcasting "EMERGENCY!" And most surprisingly, Gwen's relationship to religion provides the most laughs, as she has clearly not had any actual church upbringing and is cobbling together her own ritual to speak to Jesus; when she feels she's been left adrift by God, whilst not descending to the rage of, say, Harvey Keitel in BAD LIEUTENANT, she has no qualms about expressing herself to the Great Infinite with several expletives...though she quickly apologizes just in case. Our heroes are dealing with ordeals on par with Job himself, but never lose their capacity for rueful amusement.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjheOhjZ9Hs4h2c83PJjRA3KOzR8l_F9NTRe7Pa-pHGpzv_lNTvQh2VrAnYY2JMORdc4eEXMNEwBeh5TiQMHH5HuUtDUZ0MBeOqWoXtbM9llXgOeGuvES7m1HaxwbIpJr_ceFOFZkcgYO44yoDY9GNetu57Q09-nj1nVmm0aye2ddhfRiA7Fk7wm2Cn/s480/blackphone-ABCmowpromomockup.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjheOhjZ9Hs4h2c83PJjRA3KOzR8l_F9NTRe7Pa-pHGpzv_lNTvQh2VrAnYY2JMORdc4eEXMNEwBeh5TiQMHH5HuUtDUZ0MBeOqWoXtbM9llXgOeGuvES7m1HaxwbIpJr_ceFOFZkcgYO44yoDY9GNetu57Q09-nj1nVmm0aye2ddhfRiA7Fk7wm2Cn/w400-h300/blackphone-ABCmowpromomockup.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">As befitting its period setting, in the best ways possible, THE BLACK PHONE unfolds and plays like a tight, efficient ABC Movie of the Week that its 1978 characters would be at home watching tonight. If Derrickson & Cargill's script had somehow traveled back in time to Fred Silverman's desk, it would have easily become a World Television Premiere directed by Curtis Harrington, starring Alfred Lutter, Quinn Cummings, and Richard Thomas as The Grabber. The premise of isolation and escape with a ticking clock amidst an outwardly uncaring world calls to mind not just horror classics as Jack Smight's 1972 THE SCREAMING WOMAN with Olivia de Havilland and THE LONGEST NIGHT with James Farentino, but even non-horror fare as Daryl Duke's 1975 A CRY FOR HELP, written by future "MURDER SHE WROTE" co-creator Peter S. Fischer, where Robert Culp plays a morning "shock jock" talk radio star who, after initially ridiculing a suicidal caller, changes course and desperately appeals to all his listeners to help track her down before she gives in to her depression. (All films produced, appropriately enough, by the studio behind this one, Universal.) In one powerful moment, Culp's DJ could just as easily be speaking for Gwen after her brother's kidnapping:</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBX3kRMeoixxL1qReAqPu3-xWnUdeO6K7IOg-aPVsGNj_b9EDXdrgBca8v2002-y4_m6HpR_CsJHlfb07EnvC-P89_6FRiXLRdIfBkIivqCrzHQW-0LjlQKnTmjaabejvR1wGmCGjlj-Zk_TWWROXWTBTAcBDZcB7Rfw0NBHIHM-MJ_19V6GwMxrWN/s3306/ACryForHelpNYDN021275.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3306" data-original-width="1168" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBX3kRMeoixxL1qReAqPu3-xWnUdeO6K7IOg-aPVsGNj_b9EDXdrgBca8v2002-y4_m6HpR_CsJHlfb07EnvC-P89_6FRiXLRdIfBkIivqCrzHQW-0LjlQKnTmjaabejvR1wGmCGjlj-Zk_TWWROXWTBTAcBDZcB7Rfw0NBHIHM-MJ_19V6GwMxrWN/w141-h400/ACryForHelpNYDN021275.jpg" width="141" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><i>"There's a guy down at the police station - you heard him - who said that the girl </i>can't<i> be found. The word was </i>can't<i>. Well, I'll tell you what I think. Maybe we better get cracking. Not just me, but all of us, because...I guess she's one of us...and maybe we oughta take some responsibility for her." </i></p><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;">Hey, now, who really cares?<br /></b><b style="text-align: left;">Hey, won't somebody listen<br /></b><b style="text-align: left;">Let me say what's been on my mind<br /></b><b style="text-align: left;">Can I bring it out to you<br /></b><b style="text-align: left;">I need someone to talk to<br /></b><b style="text-align: left;">And no one else will spare me the time</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;"><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;">- Linda Perhacs, "<a href="https://youtu.be/RGd_Kt1Nh7Q">Hey, Who Really Cares</a>"<br /><br /><br /></b><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XzcVR0W_VaA" width="320" youtube-src-id="XzcVR0W_VaA"></iframe></div></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxTvPLOJ3nikP7oYme1y76ahKHDBUTBstCLZ3K8bqh9optkU-KLQOhmfIhUMfi5V9VzXXLfppaRg3wg62ntu7bsY7ktJ96RWN0k8-Maw4V4JzPk262oXTA_S9dDlNMNMMnmzccx3JqMD9xRxSRoRWT_Ei7uNZzGZ6NpbYEM_SPs9c1HGBhmRlnwu0Y/s1179/blackphone-grabbersvictims.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="1179" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxTvPLOJ3nikP7oYme1y76ahKHDBUTBstCLZ3K8bqh9optkU-KLQOhmfIhUMfi5V9VzXXLfppaRg3wg62ntu7bsY7ktJ96RWN0k8-Maw4V4JzPk262oXTA_S9dDlNMNMMnmzccx3JqMD9xRxSRoRWT_Ei7uNZzGZ6NpbYEM_SPs9c1HGBhmRlnwu0Y/w400-h168/blackphone-grabbersvictims.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Indeed, the notion of being the proverbial brother's keeper is the recurrent thread through Finney's interactions with the voices of The Grabber's previous victims, all of whom, in their own ways, are children on the margins. Bruce Yasmada is Asian, Robin Arellano is Latino, mingling amiably with white kids in a time where racial integration in the suburbs is still a relatively new phenomenon. Billy Showalter, who bristles at hearing his name and prefers being called by his occupation "Paperboy," suggests a child thrust into the work force to sustain the household. Griffin Staggs is a proverbial lonely invisible kid - Finney says to him, "I didn't know you," and he replies, "Nobody did." And Vance Hopper, by contrast, is one of the meanest, most feared people in the neighborhood, almost a rival to The Grabber in tall tales around the playground, the kind of person who would actively <i>not</i> be missed. They have little in common beyond any of them not being considered one of the average boys in town, but in cold Kubrickian calculus, whatever their previous quarrels, they are all equal now. And in turn, it is now Finney's task to try every strategy they offer him to escape and expose their killer. He has already demonstrated an ability to grasp the circumstances of others, it is time to augment that with action. Because, as Robin reminds him, he is capable of withstanding pain without compromising his morals: "You were always afraid to throw a punch, but you knew how to take one." When he was alive, he warned him that some day he would have to stand up for himself, and in his posthumous counsel he proclaims, "Someday is today...Use what we gave you." In saving himself, he will also make sure the other boys are not forgotten, and that no other child in their town will be claimed either.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is a sentiment that is right at home in the tradition of Roman Catholicism what has fascinated Derrickson for some time. Though almost completely eliminated in the present day, for centuries during the Sacrament of Confirmation, when a teenager stands before an archbishop and speaks for themselves the vows that a godparent previously took for them at Baptism, the bishop would in turn softly touch their cheek with their hand, to symbolize the potential conflicts ahead from adhering to those vows. And while post-Vatican II church teachings have attempted to de-escalate the fetishization of suffering, many Catholics, including myself, appreciate the base concept that in life, doing the right thing is often going to hurt, emotionally and physically, and many times, it will be an unrewarding endeavor. Finney gets a taste of this harsh truth when, upon trying to thank Vance for his escape hint, he screams back, "IT'S NOT ABOUT <i><b>YOU</b></i>, <b>FUCKHEAD!</b>" In his literal quest for survival, he accepts a crucial lesson about allyship, that some of the pain of conscientious behavior will involve being castigated by the very souls he seeks to help. With apologies to Eddie Izzard, being good won't guarantee you any fucking cake; at best, maybe a cracker on Sunday.</p><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>You've been sitting on your ass<br />Trying to find some grace<br />But you better save yourself<br />If you wanna see his face</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>- Chris Bell, "<a href="https://youtu.be/hUPPESuWvNo">Better Save Yourself</a>"</b></div><p><br /></p><p>Derrickson, in his thoughtful interview with Chaw, expounded on the acceptance of pain in a life of faith, as opposed to the excessive positivity of, say, Prosperity Gospel purveyors. He states, "man, in that culture, you gotta be happy. You gotta be happy and everything's positive because that's the result of loving Jesus. That's proof. You wanna hear the Good News? Everything's great. You know, He saved me. Never mind the horrible and obvious shit I have pressed down into my gut, my life is wonderful. Everything is great. The idea of delving into darkness is in the Catholic tradition, but boy, it sure as shit is not in the Evangelical one. That's not healthy. It has no relationship with reality. There's kind of a no darkness allowed rule when it comes to that brand of American Christianity."</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPUN7kuSqZ6-nRuvXT0b88-A1Y6PrvzezsTREb8YPH0t-fpfKQj766wA9yfH_CaJ0cQQU2Nr7X7UDlA1JD78NGwObSmhn0NL6QtDMDjs-82eLFtwFoFlaL_VzMuyMWrfSv00cStqekOOPkqoLDyJXVLhfltEOHVdcpWt1fpCBewebzGHUJ_KGVy84-/s1920/blackphone-gwenseeshouse.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="797" data-original-width="1920" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPUN7kuSqZ6-nRuvXT0b88-A1Y6PrvzezsTREb8YPH0t-fpfKQj766wA9yfH_CaJ0cQQU2Nr7X7UDlA1JD78NGwObSmhn0NL6QtDMDjs-82eLFtwFoFlaL_VzMuyMWrfSv00cStqekOOPkqoLDyJXVLhfltEOHVdcpWt1fpCBewebzGHUJ_KGVy84-/w400-h166/blackphone-gwenseeshouse.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>As Finney is the surrogate for Derrickson learning to transcend childhood trauma, Gwen is the surrogate for accepting mystery in the greater world. She is initially trepidatious at the prospect of psychic sight, having only a vague knowledge that her mother claimed to be able to "see things" before taking her own life, much like Ellie Taylor, the tender protagonist of <a href="https://projectorhasbeendrinking.blogspot.com/2021/11/i-believe-you-thousands-wouldnt.html">Edgar Wright's equally scintillating 2021 thriller LAST NIGHT IN SOHO</a>; to her, this gift has only yielded alternating bouts of abuse and angst from her father. But once her own brother goes missing, with practically all the adults around her proving to be nigh worthless for help, she's open to accept whatever God or her subconscious have to show her. She's wise enough to temper these mind flights within the reality of her environment, lest this become a Great Pumpkin-esque weight on her playground reputation, but as she bravely and alone follows the crumbs, she helps make a positive outcome possible; she's is willing to look where others have not thought to look, be it in that quiet house no is seen entering or leaving, or in her own self.</p><p><br /></p><p>Reflecting back on Derrickson's assertion about his previous endings, any viewer will concur that this is the cleanest and happiest resolution of his films. In sober terms, it's not without some future ambiguities for its characters. Finney likely may find himself overcome by survivor's guilt as he grows older. His Big Man on Campus status will dissipate one day, and his old antagonists may feel bold enough to resume stirring his pot. He and Gwen may be in a honeymoon stage with their father now that they've emerged from this ordeal safe, but how long before a parental hand gets raised in a fit of pique again? But these matters will be dealt with later, if or when they happen. Today, *right now*, he has earned the right to express his wish to be called "Finn," and to be exempt from petty shit. He now has faith in his abilities to survive and assert himself. Gwen now has faith that the world has forces that will set things right. And these already loving siblings have blood proof they can rely on each other. Tonight, they're going to stay up past their bedtime, watch scary movies and eat ice cream, and enjoy childhood. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLE2qmpSbX4pbS1wDU_MGjxEUMWhbPF6GJXIoXcTZorYNX82pVsk2MHBzLtXEv5cPYg72VBfmZkwLbEW18m-a8abCI8972yYscyu7BDxCO5h-5ZdaEX0hLHuBVSZCi4IgG55_M0rBDdJwxBthIGL9Z0Y4do0U-D_TD130bsuttosR9q5rlOnad_5JM/s1280/blackphone-siblingswalkhome.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="1280" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLE2qmpSbX4pbS1wDU_MGjxEUMWhbPF6GJXIoXcTZorYNX82pVsk2MHBzLtXEv5cPYg72VBfmZkwLbEW18m-a8abCI8972yYscyu7BDxCO5h-5ZdaEX0hLHuBVSZCi4IgG55_M0rBDdJwxBthIGL9Z0Y4do0U-D_TD130bsuttosR9q5rlOnad_5JM/w400-h168/blackphone-siblingswalkhome.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><div><b>Help your fellow man<br />Your cause is great and good</b></div><div><b>Your temple made of sand</b></div><div><b>No trace of where it stood<br />No, you can't be hurt</b></div><div><b>You're a golden child of God</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>- Emitt Rhodes, "<a href="https://youtu.be/-OJzhLAoyEk">Golden Child of God</a>"</b></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p><br /></p>Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-32106119324717642262021-12-25T11:02:00.000-08:002021-12-25T11:02:06.088-08:00Twenty-One Guns the Loot<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhj7aWFOLAHT5R7rMXG8XcslzglGX13Vo9VEw4NuJSdYB2LnXA6_JNA87VNiN9uktKrUq6320YE8ga5ZpPVHVngLwTpOjY1S7piaEd94-_FwBwN1TSfgM_uDmgZUJNgWoeSNTZo5mw2VnnQLN392SjScMysZR1FnsR9fHBKyaTIPerKoWQaH3iTshqd=s660" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="660" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhj7aWFOLAHT5R7rMXG8XcslzglGX13Vo9VEw4NuJSdYB2LnXA6_JNA87VNiN9uktKrUq6320YE8ga5ZpPVHVngLwTpOjY1S7piaEd94-_FwBwN1TSfgM_uDmgZUJNgWoeSNTZo5mw2VnnQLN392SjScMysZR1FnsR9fHBKyaTIPerKoWQaH3iTshqd=w200-h150" width="200" /></a></div>It's a peculiar thing to be in my circumstance now, watching and shuddering over the pendulum swings that have affected peoples' lives in 2021, while I now exist on a comfortable keel. I spent so many years having to think three moves ahead while others could play in the moment; I'm still not 100% at ease with the turnabout. But while the world at large was not exactly conducive to engaging in large gambles, I want to think that in small degrees, I placed wagers on people who matter to me that will pay off later in the game, and I am grateful that I'm capable of that.<div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjbTMvQ8Z4hyRLRqp8JVCDB4dH0G9J2TL2DnkCOp0f--_La4CK1QoZIPc0b6usBtfVFFvikGksgnncF7GD3PTaTLEIyy7wBi8H8US4HipqBVVIPvXwuzYp-NoiPcPz5w1fjgnmSRc3rDMaxCv-eEYxsWPIvXe25CzVE_8h3CjlC4QJT0oTKyZ4I80wH=s400" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjbTMvQ8Z4hyRLRqp8JVCDB4dH0G9J2TL2DnkCOp0f--_La4CK1QoZIPc0b6usBtfVFFvikGksgnncF7GD3PTaTLEIyy7wBi8H8US4HipqBVVIPvXwuzYp-NoiPcPz5w1fjgnmSRc3rDMaxCv-eEYxsWPIvXe25CzVE_8h3CjlC4QJT0oTKyZ4I80wH=w320-h320" width="320" /></a></div><br />What I am most grateful and proud for, though, is the gamble someone took on me. B Peterson, before even reaching the age of 21, launched the ambitious <a href="https://anchor.fm/screensmargins">The Screens Margins</a> podcast network, creating shows for nurturing long, thorough discussions on the works of Wiseman, Fassbinder, and the offerings of <a href="http://Ovid.tv">Ovid.tv</a>, and within that mission, decided there was a place for me in the conversation. Together, we engaged on <a href="https://anchor.fm/screensmargins/episodes/Dance--Dorothy--Dance-No--1---Dance--Girl--Dance-1940-e13oe5b">an exhaustive journey through the surviving works of Dorothy Arzner</a>, culminating in a viewing marathon not seen since those <a href="https://selvedgeyard.com/2011/01/22/%E2%80%9Cthe-best-realtionship-marty-ever-had-was-with-robbie-robertson-%E2%80%9D/">Robbie Robertson and Martin Scorsese made famous</a>, and even made <a href="https://anchor.fm/screensmargins/episodes/Friends-of-Dorothy-No--1---Outcast-Lady-1934-evp4ct">a detour podcast</a> to spend time kibitzing over flicks written by one of her friends, Zoe Akins. I had the gift of watching terrific hard-to-see gems, waxing thoughtfully on them, and most importantly, making a wonderful new friend. Oh yeah, and discovering Arzner's student Francis Ford Coppola has been brewing a rye in her honor. I'm eagerly awaiting more engagement with B and this bottle in the New Year.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmCrUCd__M-hcECjs-I_A4MQ79M33OVjs7yG4bAzQ3ifUN72QyNskputpP0uCLWLgowjzpwBcy5XihED0QwGc4J5XLQNUzQU9eKNQ9MHmGv1xaNb2A94RrV7mn0HUTnjTbYkbQgL5wb53JXZ9mIH7neCQCArcgYCb3TgjHwygGi3F3efhxWTpO0zht=s727" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="727" data-original-width="700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmCrUCd__M-hcECjs-I_A4MQ79M33OVjs7yG4bAzQ3ifUN72QyNskputpP0uCLWLgowjzpwBcy5XihED0QwGc4J5XLQNUzQU9eKNQ9MHmGv1xaNb2A94RrV7mn0HUTnjTbYkbQgL5wb53JXZ9mIH7neCQCArcgYCb3TgjHwygGi3F3efhxWTpO0zht=s320" width="308" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">For rash or for better, regular theatrical moviegoing, and a stream of features justifying the trip outside, returned to the fore, allowing me to allocate a Jury Prize this year. And this time, well, I have to declare a hung jury, in that there's a tie: 2 unique films that deserve a spotlight all their own, both tackling multiple ideas with aplomb. Nobuhiko Obayashi's 2019 LABYRINTH OF CINEMA, finally getting a stateside release this year, was a moving blend of hilarity, surreality, poignance, and righteous anger about art, Japan, war, propaganda, and the movies, the kind of final statement only the director of HOUSE and THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME could pull off. And Kier-La Janisse's WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED was the mammoth documentary on the history and diversity of folk horror I didn't know I needed, and now cannot live without; not just a history of cool films, but of class, racism, upheaval, and hauntology. To again summon Scorsese's name, it stands alongside his A HISTORY OF AMERICAN MOVIES and MY VOYAGE TO ITALY as a one-stop epic primer for the self-educating cineaste. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgG6VQOlWa_lAEoHdsWYM8yQUkfAtD6u5cYBQ4-uft6IDZwyEQt5x8RY6oeVj-jb34A8v3H7dMIwupwzfgEpqbGt7VWetWgiSjZDQbyPUehbENApQ7GEoX3IAh93l01M2hS5Vicm2WuF2TnWHxDatcpMPI1nYg8VaKP_PX2RFSu4bbzLqAchAd_GWdN=s1333" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="900" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgG6VQOlWa_lAEoHdsWYM8yQUkfAtD6u5cYBQ4-uft6IDZwyEQt5x8RY6oeVj-jb34A8v3H7dMIwupwzfgEpqbGt7VWetWgiSjZDQbyPUehbENApQ7GEoX3IAh93l01M2hS5Vicm2WuF2TnWHxDatcpMPI1nYg8VaKP_PX2RFSu4bbzLqAchAd_GWdN=w135-h200" width="135" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgIci8BRPynzSNowN5UOK2_E0sUEH26TIhkPK8_jFvP3vKJFSjam7_8CJc5jDMEigOCj2II76N3B2j1WqN5inTohIMZjQ_-H3LVdjtypwUAbGT3F_x-UWl-M5L4QVw6qo0qA3Pa7G2AYlOjpibJGKry7sfo4yvvRsSyW05iUdfdUI7HIEQXxK4vjz4l=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1366" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgIci8BRPynzSNowN5UOK2_E0sUEH26TIhkPK8_jFvP3vKJFSjam7_8CJc5jDMEigOCj2II76N3B2j1WqN5inTohIMZjQ_-H3LVdjtypwUAbGT3F_x-UWl-M5L4QVw6qo0qA3Pa7G2AYlOjpibJGKry7sfo4yvvRsSyW05iUdfdUI7HIEQXxK4vjz4l=w133-h200" width="133" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And while potent pandemics persist and performative politicians punt, we still find solace at the cinema. Thus The Top 13 of 2021.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>13. SAINT MAUD</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgZEhiDEiNh4Oag-TvqXYYG3ej6T_4chjt9HkHuAcJgBOX5nJRVQEW3jYaLiyoDO-R6V-5ZPdHCG-ZXWyyCH6R72Pt9A8s6fMawdC0iIX74RFrMPCAXz9dY5mRn-aYchWnbsAJrQ_rhxOZBh5_D4-3lNNNWieKz925TwaVbUE1fc_ZToLeNuOVQ5qQk=s1200" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1200" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgZEhiDEiNh4Oag-TvqXYYG3ej6T_4chjt9HkHuAcJgBOX5nJRVQEW3jYaLiyoDO-R6V-5ZPdHCG-ZXWyyCH6R72Pt9A8s6fMawdC0iIX74RFrMPCAXz9dY5mRn-aYchWnbsAJrQ_rhxOZBh5_D4-3lNNNWieKz925TwaVbUE1fc_ZToLeNuOVQ5qQk=w400-h166" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>12. ZOLA</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzHqzkkdRUQByYDg3nlxSzPgmtyq3u0P4kkCK76Pw7UhZUDclggTaangTuMGNmcjbg5o4sHt8XgyYl_A_GuJ9P71jC_0csp1rCmUN6pC8ludawynJAD5yKsP6oac5NPoyWGMmhH6dPHvnIT7G6ANjm09ByoSUzD7nDr1J3jtpCR11RVSlMYJqoKQfp=s1200" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzHqzkkdRUQByYDg3nlxSzPgmtyq3u0P4kkCK76Pw7UhZUDclggTaangTuMGNmcjbg5o4sHt8XgyYl_A_GuJ9P71jC_0csp1rCmUN6pC8ludawynJAD5yKsP6oac5NPoyWGMmhH6dPHvnIT7G6ANjm09ByoSUzD7nDr1J3jtpCR11RVSlMYJqoKQfp=w400-h210" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>11. THE POWER OF THE DOG</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh5dJ552GH02LRIiDiORJYMIBqkOhcaApKwVCC2W6kl5TK-um2zQZXZIbV-5pswjsu9H-oQZfG_govJ_JU6R6oTlrMNH_z0SG6ht7JcV0IassTYS4nkUYfUG1M5x6OpFe2FJma-aji2G6cuydfR7_R6COGe8ETSDh5sMf191jV_hTXQPzFI4kbVhMbQ=s2000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="997" data-original-width="2000" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh5dJ552GH02LRIiDiORJYMIBqkOhcaApKwVCC2W6kl5TK-um2zQZXZIbV-5pswjsu9H-oQZfG_govJ_JU6R6oTlrMNH_z0SG6ht7JcV0IassTYS4nkUYfUG1M5x6OpFe2FJma-aji2G6cuydfR7_R6COGe8ETSDh5sMf191jV_hTXQPzFI4kbVhMbQ=w400-h200" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>10. ANNETTE</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhWf-O3j9xqVJZIeM1U1HC70vQvyQB-M2TWUY3uRLsAl0vIIqvtsL_Br24M2kZpBlAIKuvBplKTB6alQiTZL49jomlJL3rPxsORQ_feHUoEvOm16eIPNHpIpzlnU7J-OjjXgeparcO1wl0_70IEyOsB5UqAhcO1Q-CcILAy-qFfqbwS2Ms8enZ5SDqJ=s1024" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="618" data-original-width="1024" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhWf-O3j9xqVJZIeM1U1HC70vQvyQB-M2TWUY3uRLsAl0vIIqvtsL_Br24M2kZpBlAIKuvBplKTB6alQiTZL49jomlJL3rPxsORQ_feHUoEvOm16eIPNHpIpzlnU7J-OjjXgeparcO1wl0_70IEyOsB5UqAhcO1Q-CcILAy-qFfqbwS2Ms8enZ5SDqJ=w400-h241" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>9. PASSING</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj0LIGI6W1RwfQfz6ILKU9_vJ1hJy38vpxqYSdu0HWV7JOaBa_GHUs9WfXLzuHimCIWeGQ5YhxqxWMcw6jZaRLD--MQTFtwfDmT72HsRefOU2Akybh0tJJ9y0_YDbwnb_W4Ok-FSxgicwlIU-1On8o1nE-gvD9-TgHGYVbkPIsu5akeW8-fBSsV-XXj=s803" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="803" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj0LIGI6W1RwfQfz6ILKU9_vJ1hJy38vpxqYSdu0HWV7JOaBa_GHUs9WfXLzuHimCIWeGQ5YhxqxWMcw6jZaRLD--MQTFtwfDmT72HsRefOU2Akybh0tJJ9y0_YDbwnb_W4Ok-FSxgicwlIU-1On8o1nE-gvD9-TgHGYVbkPIsu5akeW8-fBSsV-XXj=w400-h299" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>8. PIG</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibom8K3Mq_DW75jUlnkNpqigIJ10wqDZ4URSyTqWlcjkxL2zPL7TrNBCVk6C4kshMQncsoRSdUFegILu5mjB88AQ368xSqRrNz3Kkrqli6we1aW0t3oEdmsbbtA4JyK2EaMTN0JlYD0or5SuDz7yybcEVc5jOm0PsaT6dSbS84-1AJLa2bdUoSKFNG=s1904" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1904" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibom8K3Mq_DW75jUlnkNpqigIJ10wqDZ4URSyTqWlcjkxL2zPL7TrNBCVk6C4kshMQncsoRSdUFegILu5mjB88AQ368xSqRrNz3Kkrqli6we1aW0t3oEdmsbbtA4JyK2EaMTN0JlYD0or5SuDz7yybcEVc5jOm0PsaT6dSbS84-1AJLa2bdUoSKFNG=w400-h168" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>7. SHIVA BABY</b></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZRmpmqQNmUvuWQyvxaSBugtmF5j1vw-kO3NM8bsDekDMFNsG3i8hmbb-73wIlCqI0HRvGruChzNCc4e23ezFuUiQFSmi6jjDQ-l5PhlJebbU9ofV-KIeyFvofMKuZdEtf6sYdI6OsAEv2dSKCWd5vBwmmG1qRCWB3FSfxDhFrsPflR48k2fbsW8l3=s1194" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1194" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZRmpmqQNmUvuWQyvxaSBugtmF5j1vw-kO3NM8bsDekDMFNsG3i8hmbb-73wIlCqI0HRvGruChzNCc4e23ezFuUiQFSmi6jjDQ-l5PhlJebbU9ofV-KIeyFvofMKuZdEtf6sYdI6OsAEv2dSKCWd5vBwmmG1qRCWB3FSfxDhFrsPflR48k2fbsW8l3=w400-h201" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>6. LAST NIGHT IN SOHO</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjhY2q-UzCcV4OWJUYDRRpmeEQSgoO5RdH6yaQWohqXGZjbrJY5S49iSAg-1mX2nKCi3RxWW9BX22kd_hpvVr29ilSdCnWrtR6A9qH0BQxjNiNs9BOgtyFxwIKV9P07D8yADuYkNjClcv1i3MB_57ZKzwXScWAYT4MX3CIBox5_Ji2KwFqKuFL0xABK=s497" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="191" data-original-width="497" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjhY2q-UzCcV4OWJUYDRRpmeEQSgoO5RdH6yaQWohqXGZjbrJY5S49iSAg-1mX2nKCi3RxWW9BX22kd_hpvVr29ilSdCnWrtR6A9qH0BQxjNiNs9BOgtyFxwIKV9P07D8yADuYkNjClcv1i3MB_57ZKzwXScWAYT4MX3CIBox5_Ji2KwFqKuFL0xABK=w400-h154" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>5. LICORICE PIZZA</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJ7ZurHhbOIlSzBrmaZVRVz4wwiuCAzRYBerX3VdRB0-f3Gzcok2m8F9Rqru2UmuJRLx9Nv08AfZ9nntd-7rMwoManSb9bkrmpxwag14VOjjc4td58-1GY_DsVEuPPL5IS8OgkarYB3zVKyuvIApdXJt8Ob9a-P4OdkbPw6PFCWvsPVrmFgkYzpDcM=s750" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="750" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJ7ZurHhbOIlSzBrmaZVRVz4wwiuCAzRYBerX3VdRB0-f3Gzcok2m8F9Rqru2UmuJRLx9Nv08AfZ9nntd-7rMwoManSb9bkrmpxwag14VOjjc4td58-1GY_DsVEuPPL5IS8OgkarYB3zVKyuvIApdXJt8Ob9a-P4OdkbPw6PFCWvsPVrmFgkYzpDcM=w400-h170" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>4. TITANE</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiywpVIJYesBo_lNiL79QfP93BqBWRZAGx9lQDamvWRdkjH4J0vI_pJKFW3mnVBjnXPyaNeoLTGSkcXxrSCZr9AsVH_6a8htwr_xED9vIOazapwD-gpAOZHuCUd8NA3h8apE8OFuuLRETWWQ2Mj7q0f2rHF-5nes4XgfNuyB_iW3ceB7WDuwIGVMyOk=s1284" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="1284" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiywpVIJYesBo_lNiL79QfP93BqBWRZAGx9lQDamvWRdkjH4J0vI_pJKFW3mnVBjnXPyaNeoLTGSkcXxrSCZr9AsVH_6a8htwr_xED9vIOazapwD-gpAOZHuCUd8NA3h8apE8OFuuLRETWWQ2Mj7q0f2rHF-5nes4XgfNuyB_iW3ceB7WDuwIGVMyOk=w400-h168" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>3. SWAN SONG</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhmdbrtvyMmWY6ApdLwSwLmOQJ_iOJIV5OsqwQImawMxCRf0zOhwRK75JJiz-MKgCaeMWLhf34LRlmwDesdLaVT_dufySofStVsiV7zgQwS3ahvoL7dsMAE4Y1rGi26_BAutjab5zjrd2lRLxT_A9cbvIYzOf9HtnTTL3bil-ZGFjoU5RwWAgzfGpX2=s2000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="2000" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhmdbrtvyMmWY6ApdLwSwLmOQJ_iOJIV5OsqwQImawMxCRf0zOhwRK75JJiz-MKgCaeMWLhf34LRlmwDesdLaVT_dufySofStVsiV7zgQwS3ahvoL7dsMAE4Y1rGi26_BAutjab5zjrd2lRLxT_A9cbvIYzOf9HtnTTL3bil-ZGFjoU5RwWAgzfGpX2=w400-h200" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>2. DRIVE MY CAR</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimsxy_hEwXdWGOCCkBvQnwEqfwT-5S4_6Y_SOkCWkG9c1Axjy1eRwp9Q8XkC78L6eEVmKiTPOzG6if6La9FiqVZJkrfzqeb3uf55gWRSvz7I5nUXMC9Gg1DN_Y0chPzvEspK4V7zC4f6-SUHXPMs5nr9zKgk77zsVRbBcDeCSOu8-7N8NnpPdlSh6f=s1280" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimsxy_hEwXdWGOCCkBvQnwEqfwT-5S4_6Y_SOkCWkG9c1Axjy1eRwp9Q8XkC78L6eEVmKiTPOzG6if6La9FiqVZJkrfzqeb3uf55gWRSvz7I5nUXMC9Gg1DN_Y0chPzvEspK4V7zC4f6-SUHXPMs5nr9zKgk77zsVRbBcDeCSOu8-7N8NnpPdlSh6f=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>1. SUMMERTIME</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjucCwV4X-WIlqLOs7H0F2uDkJ9A_R0MxAfVQyhKz9MhYDRTsZF1DudGD9cw9WjssoU-xISjmdpJ6gN3Iff8pnLRinBicZWo5G6Ip3E1t3XyLvEqlUhMaSZfwkbIN859Lf-kzvf3aLrM5Tb9ljOSsGErmN2ZUDrOaOzzjYIRXI4V5jf5T67GcPll3gF=s1200" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1200" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjucCwV4X-WIlqLOs7H0F2uDkJ9A_R0MxAfVQyhKz9MhYDRTsZF1DudGD9cw9WjssoU-xISjmdpJ6gN3Iff8pnLRinBicZWo5G6Ip3E1t3XyLvEqlUhMaSZfwkbIN859Lf-kzvf3aLrM5Tb9ljOSsGErmN2ZUDrOaOzzjYIRXI4V5jf5T67GcPll3gF=w400-h166" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">It has been an unofficial and unfortunate trend to post a moving quote from a cultural figure I admired who passed away in the calendar year, both unexepectedly, and much too young. Seeing how this year had so many deaths brought about by an indifferent virus, that not only claimed titans, but who knows how many more nascent creators who never got their big break, I think this epigram from the past is an appropriate tribute:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>"Nothing seems so tragic to one who is old as the death of one who is young, and this alone proves that life is a good thing." </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8oaN0SqciBw/Ycag3fpFMaI/AAAAAAAADlM/2BHBKOF3DIE36wFm_3B1Ka-kRGZjuVHkwCNcBGAsYHQ/s486/zoeakinsflowers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="430" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8oaN0SqciBw/Ycag3fpFMaI/AAAAAAAADlM/2BHBKOF3DIE36wFm_3B1Ka-kRGZjuVHkwCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/zoeakinsflowers.png" width="283" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoe_Akins">Zoe Akins</a>, October 30, 1886 – October 29, 1958</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div></div>Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-54453604096000076762021-11-22T12:18:00.000-08:002021-11-22T12:18:21.332-08:00"I believe you; thousands wouldn't."<p><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i-ufRAPu9Hs/YYW1u2fzzXI/AAAAAAAADb0/zw6mByaAXTsSYrMB6QIDQu3cJyv391uKgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2514/lastnightinsohostageshadow.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1158" data-original-width="2514" height="184" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i-ufRAPu9Hs/YYW1u2fzzXI/AAAAAAAADb0/zw6mByaAXTsSYrMB6QIDQu3cJyv391uKgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h184/lastnightinsohostageshadow.png" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /><i><br /></i></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i></i></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-44i3G7lfvcw/YYW2AGAO2bI/AAAAAAAADb8/ECVndQ257EIruz1jjeFfr2U6tBA42n3aACLcBGAsYHQ/s604/Edgar20Wrightpolaroid.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="602" data-original-width="604" height="199" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-44i3G7lfvcw/YYW2AGAO2bI/AAAAAAAADb8/ECVndQ257EIruz1jjeFfr2U6tBA42n3aACLcBGAsYHQ/w200-h199/Edgar20Wrightpolaroid.jpg" width="200" /></a></i></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br />A preface: The following essay will be detailing almost every major plot revelation in LAST NIGHT IN SOHO, as well as that from another well-known Italian thriller by a name director. I don't personally believe that knowing all the details will ever hurt a first-time viewing of a movie if the story is good and the direction well-executed, but there is definitely a specific pleasure to be obtained from going into discovering a previously unviewed film with a blank slate. So use that information as you will...</i></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b>It lay buried here, it lay deep inside me</b></div><b><div style="text-align: center;"><b>It's so deep I don't think that I can speak about it</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>It could take me all of my life</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>But it would only take a moment to</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Tell you what I'm feeling</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>But I don't know if I'm ready yet</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>You come walking into this room</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Like you're walking into my arms</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></b></div><p>Longtime readers of this blog know from <a href="https://projectorhasbeendrinking.blogspot.com/2012/04/edgarrific.html">previous</a> <a href="https://projectorhasbeendrinking.blogspot.com/2014/04/fair-weather-friends-and-two-garys.html">writings</a> that I am openly and unashamedly in the tank (or should that be in the boot?) for Edgar Wright. There is the surface appeal, which is his genial cinemania, both on display in his films via creatively repurposed homage, and in his public profile, refusing to engage in cultural gatekeeping by politely observing that those who have never seen any of the canonized classics have the unique gift of seeing them with fresh eyes. But always beneath the playful visualizations, there has been serious reflection on the difficult moments faced in a life, usually involving taking responsibility for bad choices amidst increasingly calamitous circumstances. In a sense, he is the current master of delivering potent medicine inside the most delicious candy coatings.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n77moX5tTdA/YZr1LvIqiNI/AAAAAAAADhY/fyFleulRXWYBfNeZA-07jgFiJIPJ0D1lACLcBGAsYHQ/s500/lastnightinsohotitlescreen.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="208" data-original-width="500" height="166" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n77moX5tTdA/YZr1LvIqiNI/AAAAAAAADhY/fyFleulRXWYBfNeZA-07jgFiJIPJ0D1lACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h166/lastnightinsohotitlescreen.png" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Yet even by that metric, LAST NIGHT IN SOHO is a striking variation on the Wright template. There is still virtuoso composition at work, but with much more discipline than the comical quick cuts in his comedies. For that matter, while hardly bereft of levity, there's little comedy at all in this production, with those being Laugh Quietly To Myself rather than Laugh Out Loud incidents. There is allusion to influential works of the past, but most are not so direct as to be pointed to by Rick Dalton watching himself on TV. Notably, it is his first film with a female lead, who also happens to be his youngest as well. And for once, the protagonist is not faced with having to change and adapt, it is the environment around her that is shown to be mired in stasis.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A97LsgnunFQ/YZmdfSvAoPI/AAAAAAAADg8/EdhKFbvXnzAaJ_WtJ1nQNaKsa4ZkVyeRwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/last-night-in-soho-mirror-necking.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="1200" height="209" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A97LsgnunFQ/YZmdfSvAoPI/AAAAAAAADg8/EdhKFbvXnzAaJ_WtJ1nQNaKsa4ZkVyeRwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h209/last-night-in-soho-mirror-necking.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Ellie Taylor (Thomasin McKenzie), in the tradition of several Wright heroes, is living with the loss of her mother, made particularly painful in that the parent took her own life, as opposed to dying in accidents as Baby Miles' in BABY DRIVER or Danny Butterman's in HOT FUZZ, or being dispatched after zombie infection as Shaun's in SHAUN OF THE DEAD. However, the girl regularly senses her presence in mirrors, a mixed gift which alternately gives the comfort of feeling the absent parent is witnessing her still but leaves her worrying if she too will succumb to the same emotional turmoil that drove that end-of-life decision. When she moves to Soho, and embarks on a path of dream-state journeys with her Swinging Sixties avatar Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), Ellie receives physical sensations of the experiences, driving her to investigate if they're based in real events. And after an initial run of piquant encounters, the increasingly bleak and violent turns of Sandie's circumstance bleeds into Ellie's waking consciousness too, making her sense threats around her even she's in no outwardly perceivable danger. Effectively, her concerns about subsuming her mother's psychosis have now been replaced by inheriting the mounting paranoia of a kindred spirit and fearing that she too will be consumed by that darkness. To paraphrase an otherwise tired cliche, once you've been struck down like a nail, everything that comes at you looks like a hammer.</p><p><br /></p><p>In short, if there were a giallo-appropriate alternate title for this tale, it should be The Girl Who Felt Too Much. The same internal chemistry that buoys her when she listens to '60s Britpop is what inspires embarrassment when her mother's energy is present, making her lie to her grandmother about how recently she's had the sensations. When initially thrust into a a clique of Mean Girls, she can't just blow off their catty insults or ignore the noise they make; it's directly injurious. Yet in the deceptively quiet confines of the quaint bed-sit she moves to, in the absence of people and cacophony, she ingests the energy of lingering memories that only near the end, she realizes were indeed based in reality; the life of her outwardly taciturn landlady...Alexandra Collins (Diana Rigg). Like Ellie, she too had pendulum swings of elation and paralyzing fear, but somehow Ellie never realized that Sandie resolved that problem by killing everyone who threatened her...because that's when Sandie stopped feeling anything anymore.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N5zqlyREmNw/YZsKorOdrHI/AAAAAAAADh4/CbDIuXg9uFE9zebY_bSwAmth5IZto8lugCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/last-night-in-Soho-more-about-the-tragic.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="600" height="210" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N5zqlyREmNw/YZsKorOdrHI/AAAAAAAADh4/CbDIuXg9uFE9zebY_bSwAmth5IZto8lugCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h210/last-night-in-Soho-more-about-the-tragic.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b>If you can't tell your sister</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>If you can't tell a priest</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>'Cause it's so deep you don't think that you can speak about it</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>To anyone</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>And you tell it to your heart?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Can you find it in your heart</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>To let go of these feelings</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Like a bell to a Southerly wind?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>We could be like two strings beating</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Speaking in sympathy</b></div></div><p><br /></p><p>Different viewers have been gleaning different themes from the film, mostly about the dangers of the big city, or of romanticizing the past. But these readings seem facile. Yes, London may be an overwhelming place for a sensitive "country mouse" as Ellie, but as Gary King might attest, small towns are just as capable of callous behavior since they tend to be the kind of place where everyone knows your business and has an unsolicited opinion about it, regardless of whether or not they have been absorbed into a giant alien consciousness. While the nightmare sequences well demonstrate how the surface image of smashing birds cavorting on Carnaby St. disguised how many women's throats were under the heels of Beatle boots, the present day sequences involving a creepy cabbie, space invading male students, and indifferent police, make it clear that not only has the misogyny not gone away, it's even more blatantly out in the open. Even when retired vice squad punter Lindsay (Terence Stamp) is revealed to be roughly benign, he is hardly a model of chivalry: telling Sandie in the midst of her sex work that "you're better than this," without offering any sort of direct route to that mythical better opportunity, is not the compliment he thinks it is, and the condescending tone he takes in conversation with Ellie suggests his attitude toward women may not be malicious, but it's not nuanced either. And for a vulnerable girl in any incarnation of the city, getting people to take them seriously when they claim powerful men have abused them is often met with as much resistance and ridicule as, well, claiming to possess paranormal capabilities.</p><p></p><div></div><p></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></p><p>However, people suggesting that Wright has made an opportunistic "#metoo" story are neglecting that in all his major works, the comedy may have the appearance of "lads being lads," but there's always been criticism of that mindset. Baby Miles Driver is often too clever for his own good, his impulses to show off in the face of threatening parties puts those he ostensibly cares about further in harm's way; even with all the people who vouch for his integrity, he's still going to have to do that prison sentence to get some perspective. When Scott Pilgrim meets Nega-Scott, and his antithesis offers to buy breakfast, it's pretty clear that the doppelganger was the "good" Scott all this time. Shaun may be easily distracted and Ed an enabler, but it is jealous jockeying by Liz's flatmate and unrequited lover David that brings the most cataclysmic battle of their zombie exodus. Danny Butterman ultimately stands up to the martinet classism, racism, and outsider demonization of his police chief father, but he and Nick employ the same militarized tactics to eliminate the Neighborhood Watch Alliance, and its hinted that much like the meme of a bomber plane painted with a rainbow flag, Sanford is going to have a more virtuous but not less violent police force. And Gary has found sobriety and consideration for others and asserted the worth of the individual (even alien clones), but he's forced the rest of mankind to return to hunter-gathering in the process. You could love all these men if you knew them in real life, but you would confess privately to those friends of yours whom they <i>don't</i> know that they're a handful.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L-nbs0W9wKs/YZsWhkr3wYI/AAAAAAAADiA/luV2nNfYPE8yhRHtVOH-Z3-RSoV-D8_awCLcBGAsYHQ/s397/lastnightinsohoeliielibrary.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="155" data-original-width="397" height="156" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L-nbs0W9wKs/YZsWhkr3wYI/AAAAAAAADiA/luV2nNfYPE8yhRHtVOH-Z3-RSoV-D8_awCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h156/lastnightinsohoeliielibrary.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>In contrast, Ellie stands out not just by her youth and gender, but her willful reserves. She is still raw about losing her mother, but is secure in the knowledge she did not take her presence for granted like Shaun did, and unlike Danny, who has cocooned in childish police cosplay after his mom's passing, or Baby, whose tinnitus from a car accident may as well be mentally obscuring the memory of his mother's death throes, she presses onward with her goals. She must sometime retreat to herself when the world is hostile, but she has activated her self-respect a lot sooner than Scott Pilgrim has. Despite the mounting phalanx of horrors in her head, she soldiers through researching the forgotten crimes of the past, confronts the enigmatic Lindsay, and saves herself.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thus, Wright and his co-screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns demonstrate that in many circumstances, women cannot and do not take the luxury of stewing in their sorrows like his other arrested adolescent characters. This is echoed in the grim descent of Sandie, in the cautions of Ellie's world-weary pub boss, even in the glint of sympathy and strength accorded to Ellie's outward nemesis Jocasta (Synnøve Karlsen): admitting to a parental loss herself, her one-upmanship and over-it-all manner among her peers may well be projection of a personal pain she fears she should not admit to lest she be thought too weak and emotional too. It could be said that Jocasta is on the precipice of becoming a future Alexandra Collins, repressing her legitimate heartbreak in favor of callous bravado to survive, endangering her humanity. There's also an interesting parallel to Wilson-Cairns' previous screenplay credit of 1917 with Sam Mendes, where that film's two lance corporals are continuously attacked and injured, yet they must literally continue going forward or else they and thousands more will die. The bitter difference being that after two World Wars, the battle between the English and the Germans mostly ended, but the battle between the sexes has gotten more lethal.</p><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Take away the love and the anger</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>And a little piece of hope holding us together</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Looking for a moment that'll never happen</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Living in the gap between past and future</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Take away the stone and the timber</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>And a little piece of rope won't hold it together</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>We're building a house of the future together</b></div></div><p><br /></p><p>But let us not allow the deep concepts being discussed here to overshadow that above all else, LAST NIGHT is a feast of luminous performers, gorgeous visuals, compelling set-pieces, and thoughtful connotations to a diverse body of songs and films that may not be readily familiar to its audience, raising awareness while remixing them to new effect. In a sense, it is the fulfillment of the possibilities offered in his exuberant fake trailer DON'T! from GRINDHOUSE in 2007. In fact, here there is a tip of the hat sent back to that ambitious Rodriguez/Tarantino project, in that deep cut pop band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, whose 1968 single provides the title of this film, was a passionate subject of debate for Sydney Tamiia Poitier's ill-fated D.J. Jungle Julia in DEATH PROOF, and Ellie's ghoulish dark-eyed Halloween party makeup recalls the haunting visage of Marley Shelton as Dr. Dakota Block in PLANET TERROR.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BafBl3ZOOMc/YZsqJfZPIQI/AAAAAAAADiI/wPzwcV9Tl-4wSU5os_NdvarVyHJQBK6tgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2251/thomasinvsmarleydarkeyes.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="916" data-original-width="2251" height="163" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BafBl3ZOOMc/YZsqJfZPIQI/AAAAAAAADiI/wPzwcV9Tl-4wSU5os_NdvarVyHJQBK6tgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h163/thomasinvsmarleydarkeyes.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Casting choices for the supporting players are particularly astute, not just for their iconic status from the bygone era, but for the specific archetypes they represented therein. Rita Tushingham is most perfect to play Ellie's supporting grandmother, because in the same manner of Ellie's travails in the city, Tushingham's film roles included an interracial relationship in A TASTE OF HONEY, growing too enmeshed with a serial killer in STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING, and coping with sexual distress brought through miscommunication in THE KNACK...AND HOW TO GET IT. She even starred in an Italian murder film (albeit comedic) called BLACK JOURNAL about female serial killer Leonarda Cianciulli. And after achieving immortality for playing a sexy heroine named homophonically for her M(ale) Appeal, Diana Rigg not only presents an elegant coda to her career by playing a Darkest Timeline version of what her life could have become, as the elderly, hardened Ms. Collins, but also a sly tribute to other past characters of hers from THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU and THEATRE OF BLOOD, that on the outside seemed harmless but harbored deadly secrets within.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H_9r4YX4ZxQ/YZmfq9IEiAI/AAAAAAAADhM/ltApw2uiJp08VYRgQ_fMlee9fyigmpO5wCLcBGAsYHQ/s371/settenotteinnero.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="274" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H_9r4YX4ZxQ/YZmfq9IEiAI/AAAAAAAADhM/ltApw2uiJp08VYRgQ_fMlee9fyigmpO5wCLcBGAsYHQ/w148-h200/settenotteinnero.jpg" width="148" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Wx2XlYn0hE/YZmfwTbEKjI/AAAAAAAADhQ/gxQZ2AyB8Qcxky8dffiMhPL2I2oUi_l5wCLcBGAsYHQ/s651/ThePsychicCBSLateMovie.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="651" data-original-width="404" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Wx2XlYn0hE/YZmfwTbEKjI/AAAAAAAADhQ/gxQZ2AyB8Qcxky8dffiMhPL2I2oUi_l5wCLcBGAsYHQ/w124-h200/ThePsychicCBSLateMovie.jpg" width="124" /></a></div><br /><p>For all the British kitchen sink dramas and European thrillers that Wright has declared as influences on SOHO in <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/last-night-in-soho-edgar-wright-films-inspiration/inferno-3/">interviews</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbdQPIxdY3g">promotional videos</a>, a title I have not yet seen discussed that feels like a very direct inspiration is Lucio Fulci's 1977 mystery SEVEN NOTES IN BLACK, released in America as THE PSYCHIC. In that film's screenplay, written by Roberto Gianviti and Dardano Sacchetti, the protagonist, Virginia, is first seen as an English teenager in an Italian boarding school, who visualizes and feels the pains of her mother's suicide in Dover as it happens in real time, and then, as an adult (Jennifer O'Neill) in an otherwise pleasant marriage, is haunted by recurring visions - a deconstructed wall, a smashed mirror, a dead body - that suggest a killing has taken place in a mansion purchased by her wealthy husband Francesco (Gianni Garko). Against the disbelief of others, she investigates on her own, and the revelations initially contradict her claims - a dead body is found, but not the one she saw, a magazine was not yet published when the murder took place, etc - but soon she realizes she has not seen a past event, but a future one. What she does not figure out until too late is that the event is her own murder. Fulci had envisioned the film as a story about challenging fate, and whether it is even possible.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ellie too is challenging fate throughout her entire odyssey. On a superficial level, the fate of being a small-town dreamer who can't hack it in the competitive field she aspires to join. On a personal level, the fate of being the daughter of a fatally depressed parent and potentially repeating the same fragility; a trajectory predicted by Jocasta within hours of meeting her. On a visceral level, the fate of being driven to madness by another woman's trauma. And then of course, the primary level of coming face to face with a murderer that wants Ellie to take her secrets to the grave.</p><p><br /></p><p>The difference between Fulci and Wright's heroines is that unlike poor Virginia (her musical watch notwithstanding), Ellie succeeds in changing what would have been seen as inevitable. Not just that she survives the nightmare. She finds a balance for her sensitivity. London doesn't break her. Her artistic pursuits continue. Threats don't make her cower. And in a most poignant turn, she even changes the fate of Alexandra Collins: rather than watch her commit suicide in a state of self-loathing, Ellie intervenes and demonstrates that she has born witness to the promise and ache of young Sandie, she is that one person that understood her and what was lost so many years ago to a band of predators. Ms. Collins will have to face a fiery, lacerating death for the lives she ended, but she knows now, in her final moments, in the memory of one girl, she will not die as a monster.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S22D09yWzOw/YZsAwqr6snI/AAAAAAAADho/aTE3_qtZadc7fJhdW2E-vHZjQtlmdqkiwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1127/lastnightinsohosandiefireembrace.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="1127" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S22D09yWzOw/YZsAwqr6snI/AAAAAAAADho/aTE3_qtZadc7fJhdW2E-vHZjQtlmdqkiwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h150/lastnightinsohosandiefireembrace.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p>In years to come, Ellie Turner may not become a popular cosplay subject like other Edgar Wright heroes, but her instincts for empathy, adventure, discovery, justice, and trusting in even the aspects of herself that others would mock, may well make her something better for the random distressed soul who sits down to watch LAST NIGHT IN SOHO for a little distraction: an understanding surrogate. Someone Sandie never had. Someone too many sweet souls of the past never had. </p><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Well, if it's so deep you don't think that you can speak about it</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Just remember to reach out and touch the past and the future</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Well, if it's so deep you don't think you can speak about it</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Don't ever think that you can't change the past and the future</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>You might not, not think so now</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>But just you wait and see, someone will come to help you</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>- Kate Bush, "Love and Anger"</b></div></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZwH0kXBAu2Y/YZsCOfsaRzI/AAAAAAAADhw/sppnxLG-epA36G9KMdnu4y3hEfMCzJQfwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1079/lastnightinsohomirrortouch.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="1079" height="156" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZwH0kXBAu2Y/YZsCOfsaRzI/AAAAAAAADhw/sppnxLG-epA36G9KMdnu4y3hEfMCzJQfwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h156/lastnightinsohomirrortouch.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p>Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-68813352387909488462021-06-30T11:06:00.002-07:002022-08-22T14:30:22.646-07:00Once Upon a Time...in the Hot Summer<p><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i></i></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iAqyGFrbeCs/YGdtFbcTkHI/AAAAAAAAC0k/BwF4GlOgNU0VV512CDEujTTZm_wyAeLYgCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/hsitc02.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MsDYhS6TKXU/YGdtQ3UI4sI/AAAAAAAAC0o/ISI47KIX898b6B-W3vSvkgfrdav8h295ACLcBGAsYHQ/s720/hsitc02.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="720" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MsDYhS6TKXU/YGdtQ3UI4sI/AAAAAAAAC0o/ISI47KIX898b6B-W3vSvkgfrdav8h295ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/hsitc02.jpg" width="320" /></a></i></span></div><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>A preface: before I even mention the name of the person whose life experience will be discussed in this essay, I can hear an army of reply guys assembling, ready to volley several “Well, actually...” disputations to the details herein. As a historian, one should be capable of sussing out the messy nuances that binary thinking cannot accommodate, thus I’ve determined which testimonies in the public record can be taken as trustworthy, and which need to be dismissed. As the late Robert Evans pithily said, “There are three sides to every story: yours, mine, and the truth. And nobody is lying.”</i></span><p></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-b8700b64-7fff-d16e-fac9-a86f18ee4519"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In several interviews given to coincide with the release of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD in 2019, writer/director Quentin Tarantino frequently expounded on general topics that influenced the movie – actors, seminal movies, historical events – but also stressed his own personal relationship to its setting of Los Angeles in the summer of 1969, when he was six years old, and how that perspective would impact the production. In an extended chat with Kim Morgan, he stated the following:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[The] jumping-off point was going to be my memory – as a six-year old sitting in the passenger seat of my stepfather’s Karmann Ghia. And even that shot, that kind of looks up at Cliff as he drives by the Earl Scheib, and all those signs, that’s pretty much my perspective, being a little kid…as a little kid – and probably now too, but especially as a little kid – you see what you want to see. You throw the things you don’t care about out of focus and you throw sharp focus on the things you care about – so… I’m looking out the window and see Los Angeles out in front of me and I’m being more selective about what I’m looking at...And so, in doing a memory piece, I create that landscape.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tarantino details to Morgan that the films that most shaped his vision were Paul Mazursky’s BOB AND CAROL AND TED AND ALICE, his follow-up ALEX IN WONDERLAND, and Frank Perry’s PLAY IT AS IT LAYS, and as such, these were what he showed the cast in preparation of shooting. Several other titles occasionally would be name checked for providing individual bits of color to the effort as well. However, there is another film, previously cited by the director in the past as a particular favorite of its genre, which has never been mentioned in conjunction with OUATIH, yet, in its own way, carries very striking parallels to the memory mandate lain out before, especially in how its crucial architect (if not its actual captain) chose to memorialize a place and a moment of history…</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-juVDae38R_g/YGd7oIaQqgI/AAAAAAAAC1E/E50ZtYhFCZQHR2f2wIEm--aLfokkbcvvACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Detroit_Riots%2B%25282%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-juVDae38R_g/YGd7oIaQqgI/AAAAAAAAC1E/E50ZtYhFCZQHR2f2wIEm--aLfokkbcvvACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h266/Detroit_Riots%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For roughly one week in late July, 1967, Detroit was engulfed in violence that began with what would have been an ordinary shakedown raid on a black-owned after-hours bar, which led to multiple instances of confrontations with protesters and looting, an excessive and militarized response by government authorities, a horrifying set of murders at the Algiers Hotel committed by police under questionable justification, along with a child killed in her family’s apartment by sniper fire, and federal troops occupying the city by orders of the Governor and the President. When it was declared over, 43 people were dead, 1,189 had been injured, police arrested 7,200 citizens, and more than 2,000 buildings were destroyed.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qlpaImBR_6g/YGd1pmgwwOI/AAAAAAAAC08/Gki5r42TMcE3Pe3Lgu_gUf_OtFfvDSb2QCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/gailpalmerStClair1973augment.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1964" data-original-width="2048" height="384" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qlpaImBR_6g/YGd1pmgwwOI/AAAAAAAAC08/Gki5r42TMcE3Pe3Lgu_gUf_OtFfvDSb2QCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h384/gailpalmerStClair1973augment.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gail Parmentier was 12 years old and safely ensconced an hour northeast in Port Huron, living in a conservative Catholic household with a father serving as the county’s superintendent of schools, and four stereotypical jock brothers, when these events were taking place in Detroit. According to the 2010 census, the city was still an 84.0% White population, and logic dictates it would have been even higher back then. But growing up in a city that, in its origin, had been Ojibwa territory until they were forcibly removed by the United States government, and the only site in Michigan where, in 1889, an African-American was lynched, she was not insulated from a legacy of racist brutality. And something about those events in Detroit heavily impacted the adolescent, staying in her consciousness as she otherwise went about joining the spirit squad and the student council in her teens.</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As she recounted to AP writer Harry Atkins in 1976, Parmentier’s initially staid trajectory of high school to college to marriage veered off track significantly in 1974 when, during her freshman year at Western Michigan University, she made her first contact with the adult film world. “I had a girlfriend who was dating a guy who managed an adult theatre in Kalamazoo. He was supposed to have had [Cyndee Summers] on hand to sign autographs one day. Well, [she] didn’t show, and he asked us if we’d fill in and fake it – pretend we were the girls in the porn film. We really needed the money, so we said we’d do it.” The signing was a relative success, and it put her into the orbit of the theatre’s owner, Harry Mohney, the state’s most powerful provider of adult entertainment. </span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xg6eUeP5GC0/YGqjRjLADsI/AAAAAAAAC28/KqCr84MmsPkudSTqqreevjwP3IO_GuYSACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/aa_news_19700622-harry_mohney_entrepreneur_in_adult_books.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1551" data-original-width="2048" height="303" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xg6eUeP5GC0/YGqjRjLADsI/AAAAAAAAC28/KqCr84MmsPkudSTqqreevjwP3IO_GuYSACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h303/aa_news_19700622-harry_mohney_entrepreneur_in_adult_books.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before he met Gail Parmentier, Harry Mohney had already been a teen runaway, spent a year in reform school after pleading guilty to breaking and entering, married, and kicked around several jobs before finding his niche in operating theatres, drive-ins, and bookstores devoted to erotic entertainment, beginning with one in Saginaw in 1966, to running over 100 locations in 10 states by 1973. Mohney was beginning to contemplate direct involvement in the films that would play his nationwide circuit; the first credit affirmatively tied to him as executive producer (under the alias “Harry Dracma”) was DEVIL’S ECSTASY, a Los Angeles-based project originally initiated as a straight horror film in 1972 under the title SABBAT, but reformatted into a porn film before its release in 1976. Ironically, it starred Cyndee Summers, the actress Parmentier was asked to impersonate in her first job for him. Upon meeting this co-ed pretender in 1974, Mohney was quickly smitten with the 18 year-old, and in short order, courted her, left his wife, made her his longtime companion, and coaxed her to transfer to Michigan State in Lansing, where she was installed as a manager at his </span><a href="http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/56704" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: navy; font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cinema X</span></a><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> theatre, one of several he owned. Her whimsical impersonation of Summers would be the first of several instances where she would be providing a cover story for her new boyfriend. </span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QtRSVDMbKhI/YGd9Q9uhbpI/AAAAAAAAC1M/9EoBtAO8aPAqGxUD3Pni2ekGKAhmvNVDwCLcBGAsYHQ/s512/harrymohney1990.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="349" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QtRSVDMbKhI/YGd9Q9uhbpI/AAAAAAAAC1M/9EoBtAO8aPAqGxUD3Pni2ekGKAhmvNVDwCLcBGAsYHQ/w136-h200/harrymohney1990.jpg" width="136" /></a></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A year later, tiring of grueling negotiations over booking terms with outside producers, Mohney was ready to proceed with making his own film. He had already optioned a 1972 pulp novel, BLACK ABDUCTOR, by pseudonymous author Harrison James (later revealed to be science fiction writer James Rusk Jr.), a lurid potboiler about an heiress kidnapped by Black radicals that so uncannily predicted several details of the Patty Hearst/SLA affair in 1974 (beginning with the main character being named Patricia), the FBI tracked down and interrogated the author thinking he’d been involved in the case. However, Mohney did not particularly care for the story, and recruited an acquaintance using the alias “T. James Write” to concoct a new screenplay using the same premise of a girl abducted by a gang without the plot points of the novel. There would ultimately be an official film adaptation of BLACK ABDUCTOR made around the same time, under the title ABDUCTION, directed by Joseph Zito, who would later make FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER and INVASION U.S.A., and shot by João Fernandes, who had previously operated camera on two of the most famous adult films of all time, DEEP THROAT and THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES.</span></div><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rr0yxj3S1OY/YGdzcCpC-oI/AAAAAAAAC00/5WOGFdqxvYIsCvNzCsj0qSJ-rDJA3j8JwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1024/gailpalmermichiganstate.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="694" data-original-width="1024" height="271" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rr0yxj3S1OY/YGdzcCpC-oI/AAAAAAAAC00/5WOGFdqxvYIsCvNzCsj0qSJ-rDJA3j8JwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h271/gailpalmermichiganstate.jpeg" width="400" /></a></span></div><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Parmentier, now using the professional name Gail Palmer, had been present for all of Mohney’s activity, and when his project was assembled, she reached back into her teenage experience to make a narrative contribution that would significantly distance it from the Patty Hearst allusions, and construct it into something much more personal. “I wrote HOT SUMMER [IN THE CITY] when I was in high school. It was a real heavy story which I was impelled to write after the Detroit race riots. That was in 1967. I added the sex later, much later,” she told Charles Faber in an interview for The Advocate on March 22, 1979. After adding her material to the existing T. James Write screenplay, Palmer then made his plan viable by using her MSU student status to borrow the school’s 16mm equipment for shooting, and by recruiting amateur striptease performers from live shows she supervised at Cinema X</span><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for the cast</span><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">, along with non-professionals from her college who were also interested in acting. “The students thought I was kidding, but I convinced them they could make $200 a day. They changed their names, every one of them, so their parents wouldn’t find out. My girlfriend, who was my roommate, was the star; she used the name Lisa Baker. The student body was liberal, and most came to see the film. And they were curious to see if they knew any of the actors. HOT SUMMER had to cause a lot of excitement; it was the first porno film made in Michigan.” Mohney supplied a holiday cottage he owned in Kalkaska as the primary location, and the project was shot over the summer of 1975.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M5nIHH7hqv8/YGd9cAvdX9I/AAAAAAAAC1Q/ks2f52lJZ5IkDp-DJ9FBShJR2211qe1BwCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/hsitctitlescreen.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="720" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M5nIHH7hqv8/YGd9cAvdX9I/AAAAAAAAC1Q/ks2f52lJZ5IkDp-DJ9FBShJR2211qe1BwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/hsitctitlescreen.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">HOT SUMMER IN THE CITY depicts the odyssey of Debbie, a suburban girl about to marry, over two unspecified days in July 1967, before the Detroit riots commence. Upon returning from an engagement party (and refusing to have premarital sex with her betrothed), she is horrified to find her mother in a three-way with her fiancée’s father and another male friend. And shortly after fleeing her home, she is abducted by Duke, an ostensible Black agitator, and his three friends. After an initial violation in their car, she is taken to an isolated cabin, where the men are awaiting a meeting with “The Man,” and is subjected to more humiliations, though Duke frequently attempts to intervene in his gang’s desire to take advantage of her. When the white criminal fixer arrives the following day, with Duke’s previous girlfriend Jody in tow, he pays the gang $20,000 to create a distraction that is intended to draw police and fire departments to the scene, who in turn will be fired upon by hired snipers, with the ensuing escalation of chaos intended to allow local merchants to commit insurance fraud under pretense of riot damage. In the hours before the gang is to initiate the uprising, the tensions fostered by Debbie’s presence will divide the gang, leading to personal violence before the political violence can take place.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l__1_PBlWtc/YGeAXhC9g8I/AAAAAAAAC1Y/o0lXJQXChwk-2zVbQ-YdfiN0ExxFPCIvgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/hotsummerCinemaXpremiere.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1597" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l__1_PBlWtc/YGeAXhC9g8I/AAAAAAAAC1Y/o0lXJQXChwk-2zVbQ-YdfiN0ExxFPCIvgCLcBGAsYHQ/w313-h400/hotsummerCinemaXpremiere.jpg" width="313" /></a></div><br /><span><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When their production was ready for release in the Bicentennial summer of 1976, not only did Mohney create false details for the onscreen credits, he also crafted one huge one for the press. In an article in Macleans published in May that year, Mohney had been nicknamed as one of “The Shy Pornographers” because of his constant avoidance of the limelight, as police trying to shut down adult entertainment desperately wanted to connect him to the product but never could. However, he was already being prosecuted in other cities: he was held liable by a Kentucky court for playing DEEP THROAT at his Covington Cinema X location at the time. So it was certainly in his best interests to stay in the shadows. Thus, a charm offensive was launched where he elevated Palmer, a likeable female, as the overall author of merit, on this film and more to follow, though some industry-savvy people surely saw the directorial credit for “The Hare” and deduced it was Harry Mohney’s alias, since “Hare” was short for Harry, and he owned the shadow production company, Imperial Films. For several personal appearances, print and TV interviews, and cross-promotions, she was presented as the woman behind The Hare, which certainly carries ironic truth. Longtime adult director Bob Chinn, who was on the camera crew of the subsequent films credited to Palmer, described the arrangement in his memoir THE OTHER SIDE OF PARADISE, VOL. 2:</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qep4EEWBtyg/YGeC5C1czMI/AAAAAAAAC1o/BsCKVM9RemQykllof5TDyNHl8NYGPs7xgCLcBGAsYHQ/s512/gailpalmermovieola.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="322" data-original-width="512" height="251" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qep4EEWBtyg/YGeC5C1czMI/AAAAAAAAC1o/BsCKVM9RemQykllof5TDyNHl8NYGPs7xgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h251/gailpalmermovieola.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Their front person for company was Harry’s girlfriend at the time, an attractive and bright young lady named Gail Palmer, who had been credited as the director of a film they had made in Michigan [as] well as two of their subsequent features THE EROTIC ADVENTURES OF CANDY and CANDY GOES TO HOLLYWOOD. But the true credit for the direction of these films should probably go to Harry...the powers-that-be [firmly] believed that a sexy, attractive female filmmaker and producer would [bring] in a larger audience to their films and I found that I couldn’t fault their reasoning one bit so I cheerfully decided to go along with it...Our deal stipulated that Gail Palmer would be credited as the producer and, if they chose, as the director on all of the films that I did for [them]. It was an arrangement that sounded fine since credits on these films really didn’t mean all that much to me.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xZp3nAuJEO8/YGeDI17liuI/AAAAAAAAC1w/WveTMADd_fwYPMZ46ZznQSgnCkOnbhwzgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1000/hotsummercolorsolicitationAdSausage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="773" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xZp3nAuJEO8/YGeDI17liuI/AAAAAAAAC1w/WveTMADd_fwYPMZ46ZznQSgnCkOnbhwzgCLcBGAsYHQ/w309-h400/hotsummercolorsolicitationAdSausage.jpg" width="309" /></a></div><br /><span><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quentin Tarantino’s fandom of HSITC became public knowledge shortly after a semi-clandestine screening during his 6</span><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: super;">th</span></span><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> programming block at the original Austin, Texas Alamo Drafthouse on September 15, 2005; due to local blue laws, the film title was not advertised, and for legal purposes, was presented as a four-walled event by the Austin Film Society and not the theatre itself. A pseudonymous audience member in attendance wrote, “In his intro, QT talked about how he really didn't like porn at all. He got a job at the Pussycat theater when he was 16 and was an usher there for some time, not to mention his years at a video store putting him in constant contact with the stuff...He said he was such a non-fan that he couldn't even remember the few he ever saw which he didn't think were bad, which is really saying something because over the course of the week we've heard him remember the name of pretty much every movie that's ever existed and become obscure. BUT, he says, the box art of HOT SUMMER IN THE CITY finally won him over one night and the movie quickly became his by-far favorite [adult film].” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In an essay for the Literary Hub offshoot website CrimeReads, writer Olivia Rutigliano observed:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[In] ONCE UPON A TIME, “childhood” is a deliberate theme. The film begins with an evocation of an audience of children, featuring an early-60s interview on the Bounty Law ranch set, with Rick and Cliff explaining how stunts work...The film’s two scariest, most ominous moments, ultimately reveal that this era’s entertainment, and corresponding childhood innocence, is effectively gone. The counterculture movement—which, for this film’s purpose, has turned teenagers into monsters and murderers—has fully overtaken the culture. Cliff goes to Spahn Movie Ranch (brought there by a hippie who insists that she is not a minor and can therefore have sex with him, though he won’t listen—this alternate Hollywood will not harm a child). Spahn Ranch is the defunct set where he and Rick used to film Bounty Law, but Cliff discovers it’s been taken over by the Manson family commune—a horde of squalid, unwashed adolescents, bedraggled and pretending to be self-sufficient in this sinister desert Neverland that was once a dream-factory...When the Manson family members pull up in their rattling old car to Cielo Drive to commit murder at the behest of Charles Manson, they are stopped in their tracks by Rick Dalton, himself...Remembering how much they used to love his show...it seems like they might climb out of their hypnotic detestation...But one of the young women doesn’t remember [his show], and she directs them back to the dark task at hand, with an anecdote about how they have been poisoned by this generation of television. “Let’s kill the people who taught us to kill,” she says...The conflict is a literalization of the culture war—with the counterculture actually turning against the mainstream. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thus, while Tarantino as an adult surely has a substantially nuanced understanding of the late ‘60s counterculture, it is easy to speculate how, as a child, witnessing this conflict without this context, while being presented the last vestiges of square-jawed heroism in the popular media, the battles of the Generation Gap looked frightening. After all, the cops, the cowboys, the Army men, they were the good guys, right? They look like all the dads I know. Why were all these people in the weird clothes angry at them?</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U7y-kfq6TY8/YGeDr2uXiKI/AAAAAAAAC14/PeaicDjB7B8tsCoAZ6setii2vVGDVzjDwCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/hsitc12.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U7y-kfq6TY8/YGeDr2uXiKI/AAAAAAAAC14/PeaicDjB7B8tsCoAZ6setii2vVGDVzjDwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/hsitc12.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In spiritual tandem, befitting an idea that was conceived in adolescence, and coming from someone who likely grew up not having any significant exposure to Black people in her formative years, while being raised by conservative Catholic parents who probably meant well but likely made disparaging remarks about minorities or told racist jokes or warned her not to go to certain parts of town where “dangerous” people congregated, Palmer’s emotional ingredients in the HSITC storyline help make the film feel appropriately like the kind of hyperbolic nightmare fantasy a sheltered young white girl living in a cultural bubble might conjure up after seeing the riots on TV or in the newspaper. At one point, during her captivity and abuse, she bleats, “I’ve tried to help...I marched and everything,” desperate to understand why these Black men seem to have a personal vendetta against </span><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">her, </span><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as she believes has spent her formative years being a good, wholesome person. In further connectivity, Duke's gang exhibits the same sort of blind and almost listless groupthink of the Manson acolytes at the Spahn ranch, engaging in behavior explicitly forbidden when their leader Duke is around in the same way the Mansonites steal a look at television when Charlie is away.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--APz-3La6M4/YGeD1cQ9CoI/AAAAAAAAC18/Npcbi3iddsE7YQYG6GcfGXRUmcuDfS_mQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/EBM1yb.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--APz-3La6M4/YGeD1cQ9CoI/AAAAAAAAC18/Npcbi3iddsE7YQYG6GcfGXRUmcuDfS_mQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/EBM1yb.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While the movie does not take the enormous liberties with the history of July 1967 that OUATIH employs with August 9</span><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: super;">th</span></span><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, 1969, it does engage in a certain amount of fancy with those events. When the gang arrive at the cabin, idle conversation conveys that it is a Wednesday night, and that their planned uprising is to take place on Friday, which would put it ahead of when it actually arose, in the morning hours of Sunday, July 23</span><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: super;">rd</span></span><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Some viewers may be confused when characters talk about “last summer’s war,” which is referencing the lesser-remembered “Kercheval Incident” of August 11, 1966, when a group at the corner of Kercheval and Pennsylvania refused a police order to disperse, leading to three days of rioting. “The Man” that employs Duke and his gang describes for them how they are to create a distraction at the corner of Woodward and Clairmount. There’s no documentation that any agent provocateurs were involved with any incidents during the week of riots. A night spot called the Clair Wood Bar had stood at that intersection, but that was not the after-hours bar raided by the police, which was a block away at Clairmount and 12</span><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: super;">th</span></span><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> St. Ultimately, Debbie's presence is not intended to alter any of the events that will take place during that intense week of clashes; instead it sets her up as a Cassandra to them, her blank demeanor at film’s end suggesting she knows that these men who snatched her in a fit of pique will not survive this incident, and her personal feeling of bleak revelation is going to be the reaction for thousands more as it unfolds in real history.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UCSoGljjtvQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="UCSoGljjtvQ"></iframe></div><br /><span><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A particularly piercing feature of HSITC that has made it stand apart from other adult movies, and provides it uncanny kinship with OUATIH, is its prominent use of Top 40 hits of the 1960s, bracketed by what appear to be actual d.j. introductions and back-announcements by Steve Hunter, Mike Rivers, and other personalities from Detroit/Windsor radio station </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CKLW#Glory_years" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: navy; font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">CKLW 800 AM</span></a><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, in its heyday referred to as "The blackest white station in America." Besides the expectedly jarring sensation of hearing recognizable songs underscoring sexually explicit material, there are some deep cut tracks in play – The Five Americans’ “Zip Code” and Martha and the Vandellas “Love Bug Leave Me Alone”- that were regional more than national favorites, and the diegetic placements are often used for mordant commentary - “Light My Fire” plays as Debbie rebuffs her fiancee’s advances, “Everlasting Love” is heard while she is experiencing the exact opposite of such a thing, and in a juxtaposition too grim to not be intentional, as she is being whipped with a belt, a d.j. declares, “The hits just keep on comin’!” When “The Man” appears in the second half and the radio stays off, the music shifts to non-diegetic instrumental cues, many of which appear to also be lifted from mainstream films – one of them is Quincy Jones’ main titles theme for the 1970 Peter Yates drama JOHN AND MARY. While this music supervision was never addressed in any press for HSITC, Tarantino offers a fair equivalent insight about how these choices can be made in his Kim Morgan interview for OUATIH, particularly apropos since both KHJ and CKLW used the “</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_Radio" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: navy; font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Boss Radio</span></a><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” format:</span></div><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L7D2jhFV_b0/YGeEJXNc-VI/AAAAAAAAC2I/02bb_DnNsE00ygDTECA7RF7KZxBmlbI6gCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/khjrealdonsteele.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="400" height="359" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L7D2jhFV_b0/YGeEJXNc-VI/AAAAAAAAC2I/02bb_DnNsE00ygDTECA7RF7KZxBmlbI6gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h359/khjrealdonsteele.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But one of the things that was interesting to me in listening to the KHJ recordings was the fact that KHJ had a sound, the way the 80s KROQ had a sound, and then other radio stations tried to buy that sound, they tried to take that format and do it in other cities...their Top 40 wasn’t just exactly based on Billboard. It was a mixture of Billboard, it was a mixture of what people called up and would request, it was a mixture of what the DJs liked, and just a mixture of what they thought was good for the KHJ sound...And I realized there’s a whole lot of songs [like] the Buchanan Brothers’ “Son of a Lovin’ Man” – it didn’t go national, but it did really well in Los Angeles and probably a few other markets...I wanted to play [The Box Tops’] “Sweet Cream Ladies” so much but the only place that I figured it could work – but it’s just too obvious – is when the Manson girls walk in front of their windshield. OK, but I might as well be playing “Baby Elephant Walk” at that point – I don’t like songs being on the money.</span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hhumqa1SzRc/YGqgOuKJoRI/AAAAAAAAC2s/EzsAq--PKukz790boonVLouNY_r7YZ_7QCLcBGAsYHQ/s489/HSITC%252BOUATIHpaperbacks.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="489" height="326" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hhumqa1SzRc/YGqgOuKJoRI/AAAAAAAAC2s/EzsAq--PKukz790boonVLouNY_r7YZ_7QCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h326/HSITC%252BOUATIHpaperbacks.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Adding one more bit of serendipity between the two films is that Mohney commissioned an expanded novelization of the final HSITC screenplay (again credited to “The Hare,” authorship currently unknown but probably “T. James Write” as well), which was “on sale at bookstores everywhere” concurrently with the film’s release, and Tarantino, spurred by his own love of the characters and by fan speculations during OUATIH’s first run, wrote an expanded novelization of his screenplay, just published in this summer of 2021. Granted, plenty of movies of all types have novelizations, but it is generally rare to have the actual creators of those films actively taking a role in the making of what would generally have been considered a mere supplementary marketing product.</span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There has not been any discussion or other overt indication by Tarantino in any of the press before or after the release of OUATIH that he included HSITC among the dozens of films and other cultural totems that influenced his writing of the screenplay or his execution of the finished feature. However, the surprising number of parallels between the two films -- their inspiration from childhood memory of sociopolitical turmoil, their extrapolation of that naiveté into their stories, their authors unusual early introduction to the adult entertainment business, the use of period music and radio airchecks as dramatic counterpoint, some rewriting of the past, and the controversial reception of those films after their release -- nonetheless makes for one of the unlikeliest and fascinating instances of innovative minds thinking alike.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IdwfTvM_4IM/YGeEbfIscaI/AAAAAAAAC2Q/EwszLJ_T_-8kpKWdyTTROfpWnuowpIfpQCLcBGAsYHQ/s900/vz1-2018-06-23-00h04m16s172.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="900" height="276" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IdwfTvM_4IM/YGeEbfIscaI/AAAAAAAAC2Q/EwszLJ_T_-8kpKWdyTTROfpWnuowpIfpQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h276/vz1-2018-06-23-00h04m16s172.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the benefit of hindsight, since before the Cyndee Summers stunt and meeting Harry Mohney, as Gail Palmer told a Courier-Journal reporter in 1978, “I’d never had any sexual experiences or anything,” HSITC further functions as a metaphor for the disputed creator's complicated feelings about becoming intimate with this older, worldlier man with questionable ethics, with the shifting behavior of Duke from aggressor to protector standing in for her mentor and lover. Much like Debbie's shock and disgust at the hypocrisy of her upbringing, where her mother is practicing a “do as I say not as I do” stance about sexual behavior, Palmer was a metaphorical babe in the woods when she was swept up into his world, albeit more willingly than her onscreen surrogate. In Palmer’s early interviews, she expounds about her fascination with adult movies and recognition of what benefits others draw from them, while admitting to not enjoying the majority of them herself, and to an extent, Debbie’s frightening initiation into the rough and callous attitudes of her captors can be read as a creative reinterpretation of her real-life discoveries in Mohney's enterprise. And while they were happily bonded during filming and for several years after, her early screenplay eerily predicts the bleak end of that relationship: much like the end of the film, where Duke leaves Debbie behind to live an uncertain future, Palmer and Mohney acrimoniously split in 1984, with Palmer losing all career momentum, and at one point applying for welfare while her name was still being used in advertising as a sales point.</span><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nb9pfzyPmxE/YGqlG46HnjI/AAAAAAAAC3M/MmRGEiIXduchWQiwruGA1cSDpTNJzIY5gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/GailPalmerGannett.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1911" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nb9pfzyPmxE/YGqlG46HnjI/AAAAAAAAC3M/MmRGEiIXduchWQiwruGA1cSDpTNJzIY5gCLcBGAsYHQ/w374-h400/GailPalmerGannett.jpg" width="374" /></a></span><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><span><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>The Palmer/Mohney union was not only a mixed blessing on a personal level, but has forever complicated her legacy in the years since its dissolution, with the turning point being the moment when, as a witness for the IRS against her estranged partner in his trial for tax fraud (and a concurrent palimony case seeking half the revenue earned from the projects they did together), she testified under oath that she did not direct the movies that, for years in the press, she had been credited with, including HSITC. (Let the record show she was never asked about her writing contributions.) From this, many, including her would-be ghostwriter, have used this to dismiss her as nothing more than an empty vessel front for her rich boyfriend. A more nuanced assessment would be that during their relationship, Mohney wanted to make more films, Palmer came up with stories for them, and people such as Bob Chinn were brought in to do the actual blocking of actors and shot plotting. Mohney likely encouraged Palmer to call herself the director not just for promotional window dressing, but also to envelope his young and impressionable paramour into co-dependency, The subterfuge would not just help him keep a low profile, but by alternately financing her ventures and boosting her ego, while insuring that as she’d never actually done an according-to-Hoyle directing job, she’d be unprepared to work independent of him, the arrangement would also keep her bound to him. Palmer detailed for Gannett Newspapers in 1990 that, “Officially [Harry] was a non-person. He never wanted his name on anything – no credit cards, no bank accounts...That’s why I never thought seriously about getting paid for the movies. It would entail agreements, paperwork. I knew how he was about records.” </span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-25Aj2fRY3s8/YGqjwOfFUwI/AAAAAAAAC3E/d6aKa1gh_hk6qzQkY542ENOFQxekLnzeQCLcBGAsYHQ/s651/gailpalmervidrack.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="651" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-25Aj2fRY3s8/YGqjwOfFUwI/AAAAAAAAC3E/d6aKa1gh_hk6qzQkY542ENOFQxekLnzeQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/gailpalmervidrack.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the specific circumstances of determining who did what on HSITC...Palmer talks in enough detail about the genesis of the movie on several occasions, in different ways, that one can reason that this is not data she was “coached” on by anyone. Moreover, “T. James White” and Palmer would collaborate on the screenplay for CANDY GOES TO HOLLYWOOD, thus it is a plausible scenario that the final shooting script for HSITC was a joint effort as well. In the 1990 Gannett interview, it is mentioned that a local TV cameraman was brought onto the production to handle the film stock, so the cinematographer hiding as “R. Leonard Hughes a.s.p.” is probably responsible for the staging. Palmer’s short-lived second career as a rock-n-roll performer, with documented performances with the band “Fourplay,” suggests that she is significantly responsible for the song choices and their placement in the film; Mohney had creative goals, but would have been more practical business-minded than to hijack major label pop songs, that kind of brazen moxie is akin to a younger person like his girlfriend. Again, rather than adhere to an all-or-nothing ethos in the matter of Gail Palmer, a “little of column A, little of column B” conclusion in determining how much can be rightfully assigned to her is the best resolution.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">While both Gail Palmer and Harry Mohney, and possibly most of the anonymous individuals who participated in the making of HOT SUMMER IN THE CITY, are still alive, none of them have come forward to talk at length about the film since Mohney’s four year imprisonment for tax fraud, and Palmer’s abandoned attempts at publishing an autobiography. And unlike the Detroit riots of 1967 or the Tate-LaBianca murders of 1969, the true story may never be known for sure.</span></div></span><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is known and verifiable is that two children of the late ‘60s, each unable to fully grasp the magnitude of the events they witnessed in their youth, went on to work in adult theatres in the last years of their adolescence, wrote stories based on those experiences, integrated the songs and radio personalities of that time into those tales, played with the facts for dramatic effect, and saw them turned into impactful films (and books) that will continue to be hotly debated years after their release.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Huge thanks to Joe Rubin, Martin Brooks, and Ashley West for providing valuable insider information on the production history and personal details of the talent involved with HOT SUMMER IN THE CITY.)<br /></span><br />Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-63540717595397332902021-01-31T11:37:00.000-08:002021-01-31T11:37:53.199-08:00The Movie About The Song That Once Said Something New<p></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">It’s
been said that before there was the printed word, songs and poetry
carried stories to the people for centuries. One learned of ancestral
tales and current events through verses and chorus. Then when the
printed word allowed for printed music, the symbiotic relationship
continued. And when motion pictures allowed for stories to be told
with concurrent visuals, one of the first instincts was to reach to
pre-existing pop songs to create them. Warner Bros. initially
launched the “Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies” animated
shorts to serve as prototypical music videos for the songs in their
Warner-Chappell publishing catalog. The earliest films of American
sweetheart Doris Day were often constructed from entries of The Great
American Songbook – MY DREAM IS YOURS, LULLABY OF BROADWAY, ON
MOONLIGHT BAY, BY THE LIGHT OF THE SILVERY MOON, YOUNG AT HEART, and
more.</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">Entering
into the tail end of the ‘80s, pop song needle-drops became one of
the most important elements in entertainment. AMERICAN GRAFFITI,
SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, and PURPLE RAIN became legendary not only for
compelling drama but for wall-to-wall music placement. Smaller movies
that would otherwise have had marginal box office appeal gained extra
promotion and longevity through radio-friendly theme tunes.
Soundtracks dominated the Billboard Top100 Album chart. And after
years of using cheap cover versions on random occasions, TV shows got
serious and integrated music supervision using original recordings by
original artists into the process after “MIAMI VICE” became
destination television thanks to its striking use of pop songs as
score.
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">It
was within this climate that an energetic record company
promoter/operator and a gig-hopping musician/producer decided to tap
into this symbiotic circumstance. A.J. Cervantes had been a Regional
Director of Promotion for Casablanca Records, pushing the earliest
Donna Summer and Kiss singles, and the founder of dance music label
Butterfly, whose roster included Saint Tropez, who recorded a disco
cover of Serge Gainsbourg’s “<a href="https://youtu.be/N6JlSiMADnc">Je
t’aime (Moi non plus)</a>.” Ron Altbach had been a founding
member of King Harvest, famous for the 1972 lite rock hit “Dancing
in the Moonlight,” and a frequent collaborator with The Beach Boys
in the late ‘70s, writing and producing songs for the group, and
playing in a Mike Love-fronted side band Celebration, who recorded
the <a href="https://youtu.be/FKWMFxL7Kis">title theme for Martin
Davidson’s 1978 teen comedy ALMOST SUMMER</a>. The longtime friends
had launched a new label, Destiny Records, in 1981, and as music
video demand dramatically increased with the launch of MTV, they
linked the company to an existing firm, Mediacom, who were producing
clips and concert specials. And after a solid run of small-scale
product, they took an ambitious step upward...</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oggHbgtIs4w/YBaOIpxmwHI/AAAAAAAACzk/lEmoUPIddSMJVdTadjdFPU9kPEhEVOf9QCLcBGAsYHQ/s480/vidmoviegraphic%2Bcopy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oggHbgtIs4w/YBaOIpxmwHI/AAAAAAAACzk/lEmoUPIddSMJVdTadjdFPU9kPEhEVOf9QCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/vidmoviegraphic%2Bcopy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><br /></i></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>You've
heard the song, now see the movie: A California-based company called
Mediacom Industries is making a string of low-budget films titled
after popular songs. For about $ 2 million each, it has already shot
"House of the Rising Sun" and "Hot Child in the City,"
is now finishing "Nights in White Satin" and is in the
planning stages for "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Fire and
Rain." These won't be 90-minute rock videos, swear the folks at
Mediacom, who prefer to dub the pictures "music-driven films."
Most will include the original versions of the songs they're named
after, though they'll obviously have to toy with plot lines to turn
three verses and a chorus into a full-length narrative. "House
of the Rising Sun," for example, is about a female reporter
investigating the world of expensive prostitutes. "Hot Child in
the City" follows an innocent Kansas youngster to Los Angeles to
look into her sister's murder. So far, none of the movies has a
distribution deal.</i></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">-
from wire news report <span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1986/09/18/the-truth-about-walker/5f36823b-b89d-47ba-9136-8d39649e44a6/">published
in The Washington Post, September 16, 1986</a></u></span></span>.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
This initial three-picture slate assembled a curious mix of young
technicians from Mediacom’s music video activities and some
grizzled veterans of television production dating back to the fifties
to create the films, with generally experienced but not
name-recognizable talent to act in them. In effect, producers
Cervantes and Altbach were trying the same retrofitting strategy as
WB likely did with their cartoons and Doris Day vehicles: find a
familiar evocative song title, come up with a story that it could
plausibly anchor, pour through a catalog of other available tracks
and see which ones can provide justifiable dramatic placement, and
shoot it quickly in a specific part of Los Angeles, giving all three
films a sort of uniform aesthetic. In addition, while released to
video unrated, with occasional topless moments and plots involving
racy behavior, they were chaste enough that their cassette releases
stated, “Suitable for broadcast in all media; parental supervision
suggested,” ready to adapt to the strictures of any potential
country’s low threshold for sex, or what is derisively referred to
today as “Amazon Prime Erotica” or “PG-13 porn.”</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sQ_m1ChXU1I/YBZ83gkWjII/AAAAAAAACzQ/ug6cuJdeSuE93db2Bu_d9B2y0InrtbI2gCLcBGAsYHQ/s401/MediacomPrismdealBillboard0587.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="401" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sQ_m1ChXU1I/YBZ83gkWjII/AAAAAAAACzQ/ug6cuJdeSuE93db2Bu_d9B2y0InrtbI2gCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/MediacomPrismdealBillboard0587.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Eight months later, in May 1987, the trusted independent video label
Prism Entertainment announced their partnership with Mediacom (and
their California Limited Partnership company Music Video Associates)
to release the trio to all media. The budgets for the first three
films were cited as between $1.8 million -$2.5 million, likely a
combined total for the entire trilogy. While Prism promised a
theatrical release in advance of cable and home video availability,
no record can be found of any American playdates, and while shot on
film, all the entries are clearly edited on standard definition tape
with videoburned credits, and seem to adhere to a 1.33 composition,
so that claim was likely either wishful thinking at best or outright
ballyhoo to gin up video store buyers’ interest, since being able
to tout “Direct from Theatrical Release!” was considered a
selling point. Prism also reiterated Mediacom’s plans of two more
movies to come, this time titled “Blue Suede Shoes” and
“September Song.”</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Viewing these films in the present day, they are definitely time
capsules of their zeitgeist. And considering the ‘80s are still of
great fascination to people who were born so long after that time it
would be as far away to them as, say, watching The Bowery Boys would
be to a ‘70s grade schooler, they’re pretty entertaining on a
prime level of anthropological stimulation. All three movies focus on
female protagonists and have plots reminiscent of soap operas and
Harlequin novels (additional producer and contributing writer
Giovanna Nigro-Chacon had previously worked on the syndicated series
“<a href="http://madefortvmayhem.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-chain-of-passion-part-1-romance.html">ROMANCE
THEATRE</a>” hosted by Louis Jordan), so there is a canny appeal to
couples rather than just men. More importantly, despite producers
trying to impose a template on all of them, by the nature of the
parties that made them, there is a vibe and personality to each that
makes them interesting beyond just serving as retro eye candy. While
the details are subject to a fudge factor, they are being reviewed in
their ostensible pattern of release in the second half of 1987 –
the year that I started college, Rick Astley released “Never Gonna
Give You Up,” the first National Coming Out Day took place, and KFC
opened up in China…</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3hqDSLK-3zg/YBZ7pjAM-nI/AAAAAAAACyw/lucupAYO4sQu6PyWonIMQw_JKXXRlnSZACLcBGAsYHQ/s898/NightsinWhiteSatinVHScrop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="898" data-original-width="605" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3hqDSLK-3zg/YBZ7pjAM-nI/AAAAAAAACyw/lucupAYO4sQu6PyWonIMQw_JKXXRlnSZACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/NightsinWhiteSatinVHScrop.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Release: VHS street date not located; HBO debut September 16, 1987</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Plot: While staging a fashion shoot in one of downtown L.A.’s
dormant loading docks, successful but restless photographer Jordan
(Kip Gilman) spots a bedraggled homeless girl (Priscilla Harris) who
walks through the area, who piques his interest. Tracking her down at
a local shelter, he learns her name is Lisa, and entreats her to come
pose for him. She ends up crashing at his home studio, and after some
awkward attempts at communication, agrees to apprentice under him.
The more he discovers about her life, including her long-dormant love
of dance, the more he is motivated to detach from his superficial
work. But leaving behind familiar environments is difficult for them
both.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Creators: Writer William Kronick worked mostly in documentary
programming, writing and producing several works for George Plimpton
and The Wolper Organization along with behind the scenes looks at
movie stunts, plus occasional second unit direction on the Dino
DeLaurentiis productions of KING KONG and FLASH GORDON. Director
Michael Barnard, doing double duty as editor, was significantly
younger than Kronick, and operated a digital
production/post-production company, LightningBolt PIX, along with
being a frequent collaborator of outsider director Avery Crounse,
editing his films EYES OF FIRE and SISTER ISLAND, and directing
several videos for Motown. This would be his only narrative fiction
film, sticking to directing documentary projects and other tech work,
and continuing to keep a foot in the music world, serving as sound
editor for Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” video.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Cast: Kip Gilman starred in a string of several one-season shows for
CBS, including “JESSICA NOVAK” with Helen Shaver, before lucking
into a supporting role on “TRAPPER JOHN M.D.” during their 1986
season. He also headlined William Fruet’s surprise hit thriller
BEDROOM EYES. And in serendipity to the music-oriented origins of
this film, he appeared in one of the best-loved episodes of CBS’
1986 revival of “THE TWILIGHT ZONE,” “Nightsong” with Lisa
Eilbacher, which took its name from the Crosby Stills Nash &
Young track. Priscilla Harris has been a resident dancer on Lorenzo
Lamas’ synicated music show “DANCIN’ TO THE HITS,” and after
a few other credits, left acting to start a dance/fitness studio in
Seattle. Kim Waltrip, who plays a predatory model named Stevie, is
now a producer/director, with THE DISAPPAREANCE OF ELEANOR RIGBY
among her credits.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Influence: Its structure of a diffident artist being stirred by a
troubled muse definitely declares an attempt at making a subdued
remake of Jean-Jacques Beineix’s BETTY BLUE. Its frequent use of
neon colors and often barren, starkly furnished rooms suggests
Beineix’s previous breakout hit, DIVA.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Song usage: “Nights in White Satin” shows up 2/3 into the movie
at an appropriately pivotal moment: when Lisa goes to the roof of
Jordan’s studio at dawn to dance about, and they finally kiss. Most
of the other tracks either tap into the glam climate - “Obsession,”
Art of Noise’s cover of “Peter Gunn,” “Don Quichotte (No
Están Aquí)” - or augment onscreen action – Pat Benatar’s
“Sex As a Weapon,” “My Sharona,” “Lay Your Hands on Me.”
Amusingly, the video trailer to promote it uses “Rock the Casbah,”
which is nowhere to be found in the
film.</p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d7SE5LVQ9DQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="d7SE5LVQ9DQ"></iframe></div><br /><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Reactions: Since Kronick as writer has a documentary background, his
insights on the homeless have slightly more accuracy than the average
John L. Sullivan screenplay, but it still smacks of typical “O
their nobility!” romanticism. Harris recognizes this is her swing
for the fences, and throws herself into making her otherwise stock
character gritty and believable; she doesn’t speak a word until 29
minutes into the movie, so she does a better than average job keeping
our fascination through her facial expressions and behavior up to
that point. I think hers is the best acting to be found in the
series. And I rather liked the social activist bent of the story’s
resolution.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8XOf3d8QUb8/YBZ8FThadfI/AAAAAAAACy8/29TbBHkhyfM-g69rIgxFI6-rbhaUdf8MwCLcBGAsYHQ/s898/HotChildinCityVHScrop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="898" data-original-width="605" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8XOf3d8QUb8/YBZ8FThadfI/AAAAAAAACy8/29TbBHkhyfM-g69rIgxFI6-rbhaUdf8MwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/HotChildinCityVHScrop.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Release: VHS street date October 6, 1987</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Plot: Kansas-dwelling Rachel Wagner (Leah Ayres) comes to Hollywood
to visit her high-living record executive sister Abby Wagner (Shari
Shattuck). But after a disorienting night of clubbing with Abby’s
client and frenemy Charon (Antony Alda), Abby is found dead in a
dumpster. While Rachel sets about finding her sister’s killer, she
also finds herself taking on aspects of Abby’s personality, which
may well make her the next victim.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Creators: George Goldsmith wrote several genre favorites beforehand:
the adaptation of Stephen King’s CHILDREN OF THE CORN, FORCE: FIVE,
and William Fruet’s BLUE MONKEY. John Florea had started out as a
Life magazine photographer who became the unoffical chronicler of
Marilyn Monroe early years, shooting several portraits of her from
her debut in THE ASPHALT JUNGLE up to THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW
BUSINESS. When the legend switched to other photographers, Florea
went into television, directing several shows and the occasional
feature and Movie-of-the-Week over three decades. HOT CHILD would be his final credit, after which he retired to Las
Vegas, where he passed in 2000 at age 84.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Cast: Shari Shattuck had a direct connection to MTV, playing the
mystery blonde in 38 Special’s videos for “<a href="https://youtu.be/zg21Rkew874">Caught
Up In You</a>” and “You Keep Running Away,” and appearing in
THE NAKED CAGE, DEATH SPA, the ‘91 season of “DALLAS,” and the
‘99 season of “THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS;” she is still active
presently, and is also writing mystery novels. Leah Ayres started out
as a catalog model for <a href="https://nostalgiacentral.com/pop-culture/toys-games/darci/">Kenner
Toys’ Darci doll</a> before appearing in ALL THAT JAZZ and THE
BURNING, and being a resident player on “THE EDGE OF NIGHT,”
“NINE TO FIVE,” and “ST. ELSEWHERE.” In keeping with her
origin in children’s play, she left acting to found the educational
products firm Imaginazium. Antony Alda was the half-brother of Alan
Alda, and appeared in one episode of “M*A*S*H” and a role in his
comedy SWEET LIBERTY, along with other character parts, before passing away in 2009 at
age 52.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Influence: While all the films that constitute the golden period of
the “erotic thriller” would not yet come until after this movie
wrapped production, Joe Eszterhas’ screenplay of JAGGED EDGE and
its “is he or isn’t he” dynamic had already been a big hit. And
its equating of dance spots as the playground of potential killers
has its roots in LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR, CRUISING, and BODY DOUBLE.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Song usage: The opening credits get “Hot Child in the City” out
of the way quickly, with the sisters driving around seeing all the
pretty sights that would entrance a small-town girl. All the other
tracks effectively convey the emotions of the scenes they underscore
- “We Close Our Eyes,” “Eyes Without a Face,” “Walk on the
Wild Side,” Fun Boy Three’s cover of “Our Lips Are Sealed,”
“Flesh for Fantasy.” Also, since I am deducing that the club
scenes were filmed at what had been the influential hotspot The Probe
on 836 N. Highland, the song choices feel like they would have
actually been heard there back in the day.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Reactions: This is clearly the best executed of the three films –
the combined experience of the writer and director demonstrate they
have polished instincts in plotting and staging. It’s pretty easy
to figure out who the killer is, but it’s executed fairly enough
and rather enhances the climax’s suspense. There’s lots of visual
moments that are choice, like the colors the women garb themselves
in, and an early scene when a poster of Shari reflects in the mirror
that both her character Abby and then her sister are looking into. On
the downside, the story is pathetically homophobic in presenting not
one but two treacherous bisexual suspects, though despite his
unrealistic presentation, Alda as the unstable fallen rock star
Charon milks his role to the hilt so that it almost feels like he’s
in on its ludicrousness. On the upside, it has an otherwise
commendable sex-positive viewpoint: in a pivotal moment when the
detective hurls slut-shaming language about Abby’s death, Rachel
comes on to him, cuts him off abruptly, and tartly declares, “Women
don’t get in trouble when they say yes; it’s when they say no.”</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aqkDTuiH-mY/YBZ8fcV3FLI/AAAAAAAACzI/_2Vq7-5dYO4kRPy6fDPPWq76QU4wpxNiQCLcBGAsYHQ/s941/HouseRisingSunVHScrop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="941" data-original-width="605" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aqkDTuiH-mY/YBZ8fcV3FLI/AAAAAAAACzI/_2Vq7-5dYO4kRPy6fDPPWq76QU4wpxNiQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/HouseRisingSunVHScrop.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Release: VHS street date December 15, 1987</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Plot: After a chance meeting in a bar, frustrated reporter Janet
(Jamie Barrett) follows a lead from call girl Corey (Tawny Moyer) and
goes undercover inside her palatial brothel to investigate the
suspicious behavior of its sinister boss Louis (Frank Annese). Once
embedded, Janet faces the twin risks of going all the way with her
subterfuge, and whether she will be able to emerge with the truth of
the house’s activities alive.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Creators: Producer Giovanna Nigro-Chacon, who along with the
previously mentioned “ROMANCE THEATRE” series had a hand in the
unusual 1977 NBC children’s series “THAT’S CAT,” shares
screenplay credit with John Alan Schwartz, who wrote for several Glen
A. Larson-produced TV series as “KNIGHT RIDER” and “THE FALL
GUY,” but will ultimately be remembered for creating the infamous
“mondo” documentary film series FACES OF DEATH. Director Greg
Gold was among the founders of the influential production company
Propaganda Films, along with future filmmakers David Fincher, Dominic
Sena, and Nigel Dick, and producers Steve Golin and Sigurjon
Sighvatsson; Propaganda would be responsible for several influential
music videos and cult films. However, while he did several music
videos and other projects after, this would be the only feature credit for Gold, who died in 2015 at age 64.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Cast: Leading lady Jamie Barrett seems to have only one other credit:
Norman Thaddeus Vane’s drama CLUB LIFE starring Michael Parks, Tony
Curtis and Kristine DeBell. Tawny Moyer was a former model who
previously appeared in HALLOWEEN II It’s in the lower credits,
however, that things get particularly interesting. Billed fifth is
James Daughton, the immortal douche Greg Marmalard from ANIMAL HOUSE,
almost unrecognizable as a buff, bleach-blond henchman who’s
usually shirtless. Under him is John J. York, who spent decades as
Mac Scorpio on “GENERAL HOSPITAL” and its spinoffs, along with
playing Eric Cord on Fox’s “WEREWOLF.” Billed eighth is David
Knoller, who didn’t make much of a splash as an actor, but now has
several TV producing credits including “BIG LOVE,” “CARNIVALE,”
and “LOVECRAFT COUNTRY.” And a special credit is given for Bud
Davis, longtime stuntman, second unit director, and occasional actor,
notable for embodying the Phantom Killer in Charles B. Pierce’s
original THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Influence: While not delving into the kink play of Adrian Lyne’s 9½
WEEKS, it is definitely aiming for the same sort of “sexual
awakening through submission” message it propounded. And its
placement of two Bryan Ferry songs - “Don’t Stop the Dance” and
“Boys and Girls” - were likely chosen based on the use of “Slave
to Love” in the former film. Auspiciously in turn, its “Nellie
Bly in the Cathouse” plot eerily predicts the kind of scenarios
that would be found on WEEKS’ screenwriter Zalman King’s “RED
SHOE DIARIES” series years later.
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Song usage: “House of the Rising Sun” only shows up during the
closing credits, and it’s a gospel-styled rerecording by Denise
Mitchell “and Friends,” which feels like a bit of a cheat after
the example set by the previous films. A comparably stingy song score
meanwhile, with only the aforementioned Bryan Ferry tracks along with
“What’s Love Got to Do With It” and Icehouse’s “No
Promises.”<br />
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Reactions: Gold definitely indulges his music video impulses in the
staging and cutting of the movie; As Letterboxd contributor Hunter
Cooper wrote, “28 freeze frames in the first 7 minutes of the
film...And 5 of them being of someone ordering a Coke.” However,
considering the infamous scenarios that John Alan Schwartz easily
conjured up for FACES OF DEATH, the events unfolding here are
deflatingly tame by comparison. It’s pretty much all garter belt
and no stockings. But, it did manage a couple swerves that I did not
anticipate, and I liked the running gag of Janet’s car being
constantly on the fritz, so points for those.
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">M</span><span style="font-style: normal;">ediacom
and Prism did follow through with their intention to continue the
template, but c</span><span style="font-style: normal;">ontrary to the
bullish promises of their press releases, there would only be one
more film to follow after this initial </span><span style="font-style: normal;">three-picture
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">offering. Behind the scenes,
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">it was announced </span><span style="font-style: normal;">by</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
a short Los Angeles Times </span><span style="font-style: normal;">blurb
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">in February 1988 </span><span style="font-style: normal;">that
Ron</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> Altbach was stepping down
as president of Mediacom, to be replaced by his vice-president of
production, Strathford Hamilton, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">who
had served as post-production supervisor on HOT CHILD IN THE CITY,
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">and, coincidentally, would
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">direct </span><span style="font-style: normal;">this
final </span><span style="font-style: normal;">entry</span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
now titled</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span><span style="font-style: normal;">BLUEBERRY
HILL. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">(Hamilton’s wife,
Marcy Levitas Hamilton, served as editor on HOT CHILD as well.) </span><span style="font-style: normal;">The
project was shot in 12 days for $500,000, which would seem to put it
on par with the previous </span><span style="font-style: normal;">works</span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
but </span><span style="font-style: normal;">when</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
considering the marquee-level cast that was </span><span style="font-style: normal;">enlisted
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">in this instance versus</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
the lesser-known performers used before</span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">some savvy dealmaking </span><span style="font-style: normal;">must
have been achieved. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">At some
point during the production, MGM got a look at it, and needing
product to </span><span style="font-style: normal;">fill their barren
slate</span><span style="font-style: normal;">, acquired all rights to
it, and gave it a minimal theatrical release </span><span style="font-style: normal;">before
it reached home video from CBS-Fox.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O5F5Dxzpcrg/YBZ9KlSI_mI/AAAAAAAACzY/Thv_a3IJEyo7i57d2yd9m2r4XzfvY8CmQCLcBGAsYHQ/s866/blueberryhill1988.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="866" data-original-width="580" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O5F5Dxzpcrg/YBZ9KlSI_mI/AAAAAAAACzY/Thv_a3IJEyo7i57d2yd9m2r4XzfvY8CmQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/blueberryhill1988.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Release: limited
theatrical run December 2, 1988</p><p></p><p></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">Plot:
Within the dying mining town
of Johnsondale, California, in 1956, teenaged Ellie Dane (Jennifer
Rubin) bristles at the constant negging and browbeating from her
mother Becca (Carrie Snodgress), who has never recovered from her
husband Charlie dying the same night Ellie was born. Her
boyfriend Denny (Matt Lattanzi) talks often about leaving the town to
join a racing pit crew, and offers to take her along, but keeps
dallying on his plan. A chance meeting with another local widow,
Hattie Cale (Margaret Avery), opens the door to Ellie learning
details of her father’s life she never knew before, tapping into
her own aspirations. But they are details that Becca has refused to
deal with for too long.</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Creators:
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">Writer Lonon Smith had
previously written </span><span style="font-style: normal;">the
“dachshunds dressed as rats” horror film DEADLY EYES, and later
scripted some episodes of “MATLOCK.” </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Before
joining the Mediacom collective, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Strathford
Hamilton had </span><span style="font-style: normal;">produced several
music videos, particularly The Clash’s “London Calling.” Of all
the personnel from these projects that are still living, he has
firmly stayed in film production, producing or handling foreign
distribution for several films, and occasionally directing. He also
had a hand in launching “MIGHTY MORPHIN’ POWER RANGERS” </span><span style="font-style: normal;">upon
America. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Marcy Levitas
Hamilton </span><span style="font-style: normal;">returns</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
to editing duties here.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Cast:
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">For once, the ensemble here
needs no “You may have seen them in...” directions, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">but
looking at where their careers were </span><span style="font-style: normal;">at
the time</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span><span style="font-style: normal;">does
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">offer </span><span style="font-style: normal;">some
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">insight</span><span style="font-style: normal;">.
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">Carrie Snodgress and Margaret
Avery had both previously received Academy Award nominations, but by
the time of shooting, Snodgress was averaging roughly one movie a
year in mid</span><span style="font-style: normal;">-</span><span style="font-style: normal;">budget
projects, and Avery had not made a feature since appearing in THE
COLOR PURPLE, working mostly in television. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">The
fact that Avery gets to sing and even co-write a song was </span><span style="font-style: normal;">likely</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
an incentive. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Jennifer Rubin
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">had been drawing attention
modeling for print and commercials when she </span><span style="font-style: normal;">appeared
in </span><span style="font-style: normal;">NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3</span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
BAD DREAMS and PERMANENT RECORD around the same time </span><span style="font-style: normal;">as
this production.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Influence:
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">No articles have been located
to describe what </span><span style="font-style: normal;">kind of plot
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">was envisioned when “Blue
Suede Shoes” was first proposed, but </span><span style="font-style: normal;">at
some point after completing the first </span><span style="font-style: normal;">trio
of projects</span><span style="font-style: normal;">, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">the
producers probably saw the tremendous performance of the early
‘60s-set DIRTY DANCING </span>(for which RISING SUN’s Greg Gold
directed the video for “I’ve Had the Time of My Life”)<span>, </span><span>and
made the decision to transform it into a similar female-driven
maturation tale, </span><span>right down
to losing the swaggering aura of the Carl Perkins/Elvis Presley song
they first chose to the nostalgic melancholy suggested by BLUEBERRY
HILL. Besides self-actualization, this movie shares the same elegiac
portrayal of its long-gone Johnsondale setting as DIRTY DANCING had
for its milieu for the outdated vacation colonies of the Catskills;
it even ends with a post-credits cookie telling the viewer that in
the very year of its filming and production, the entire town of
Johnsondale went up for sale. (It is now a resort called <a href="https://rranchinthesequoias.com/history/">R-Ranch</a>.)</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Song
usage: “</span><span style="font-style: normal;">Blueberry Hill”
pops up initially as Ellie’s go-to when she noodles on the piano,
with the classic Fats Domino rendition playing over the credits. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">A
decent amount of needle-drops throughout: “Tutti Frutti,” “Rip
it Up,” “I’m a Man,” “Come Go with Me,” “Ain’t Got No
Home,” Big Joe Turner’s “Jumpin’ Tonight,”</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">Smiley Lewis’ rendition of
“I Hear You Knockin’,” and The Moonglows’ “Sincerely.”
Covers are substituted for “My Special Angel” and “Only You.”
All of the songs Margaret Avery performs are originals, with her
credited as co-writer on “No Good Man Low Down Dirty Blues.”</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">Reactions:
It’s not truly fair to
compare this outing to the other three, because even though it still
follows their template, this is a quantum leap beyond
those previous productions. The CBS-Fox VHS is standard 1.33, but
this was clearly composed for 1.85 projection (and with widescreen TV
zoom tools, fits perfectly), was edited on film with lab-finished
credits (though the end credits are still videoburned, suggesting an
early master prepared before MGM’s acquisition was supplied to the
label), and befitting its atmospheric location shooting, has a
lived-in production value that the other projects lacked. As
a teenage blossoming story, it’s not breaking any new ground, and
its portrayal of mid-50’s race relations is way too idealized, but
everyone is sincere and empathetic, and
it delivers comfort. And its ending where young love is shown not to
be the solution to everything is a nice touch for 1988. If MGM had
the resources to give it more than just a contractual obligation run,
they could have had a hit with it in the manner they would years
later with simple love
stories as UNTAMED HEART and THE CUTTING EDGE.</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">Whether
they felt they’d reached their apex with selling to a major studio,
or that there were too many players competing for a limited slice of
indie movie pie, Mediacom shut down operations by 1991. Cervantes and
Altbach have continued to work together in other ventures; today they
are respectively President and Corporate Advisor to Bonne Sante
Group, “an emerging growth global nutraceutical company” with
emphasis on hemp-based CBD products. And while strategic music
placement is still an important and well-liked aspect of feature and
television production, the retconned music drama format they
attempted is for the most part a no longer viable template.</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">Today,
the movies that came out of the Mediacom/Music Video Associates
venture have been mostly forgotten. In a sad irony, the very element
that made them a hot property – their song-heavy soundtracks –
have made them unlikely to ever surface again on physical media;
since DVD was not yet a reality, the contracts for the music only
covered </span><span style="font-style: normal;">tape release</span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">and seeing as there are now
only three major labels that control the bulk of all recordings, the
cost of relicensing those tracks for Blu-Ray has probably
skyrocketed. Plus, aside from BLUEBERRY HILL, an HD upgrade would
require a complete rescan of the elements and reassembly in the
digital realm, adding further to the potential expense. NIGHTS IN
WHITE SATIN and HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN have been recently found
available to stream in Standard Definition on Tubi, but the superior
HOT CHILD IN THE CITY and BLUEBERRY HILL are not to be found online
beyond used VHS copies.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
if you do track one of these down and watch them, much like getting
Rick-rolled online, it’s kinda fun to go back to an older, more
colorful place and time...</span></p><br /><p></p>Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-20046266732296729952021-01-12T11:49:00.001-08:002021-01-21T13:41:55.895-08:00Gleaners of a Rainbow<p>Most
movements in film history could be considered incidental: one film
becomes a success, its creators and rivals observe this and make
their own duplicates, until a genre unto itself is born, such as the
film noir mystery or the comic book adventure. Some movements can be
considered intentional: a group of like-minded artists decide to
strike out and do something different from the status quo, and while
not all of the work takes hold with an audience, viewed collectively,
it is recognized as a wave in progress, such as the French “Nouvelle
Vague” or the ‘70s American auterists. But lingering in the
cracks of film history as movements that are neither, that only
reveal themselves long after they concluded. As Søren Kierkegaard
stated in 1844, “It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say,
that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other
proposition, that it must be lived forwards.” These are the pockets
where all the participants were just going about their own business,
but upon reflection in the rear-view mirror, their choices add up to
a unique, interesting chapter that previously sat unread.</p><p><br /></p><p>This
is the case for a stretch of time less than a decade long, from
approximately 1983 to 1991, when a compelling cross-section of female
directors and writers embarked on their first significant forays into
narrative filmmaking, all of whom in turn partnered with a winsome,
beguiling young talent to act in those stories. Collectively, it was
these women who were able to summon memorable performances from their
nascent star, while male directors seemed to only see her in
conventional, limiting, and unambitious casting. And decades after
leaving acting behind, it is the roles created by these women that
have kept her legend alive to a select and faithful fandom.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MhoSwAxlRCQ/X_wCbSuTq-I/AAAAAAAACvo/417FVe8f-88ffMIg6uU0UEzS47DFi4y_wCLcBGAsYHQ/s595/rainbowEarthAngel.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="595" height="269" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MhoSwAxlRCQ/X_wCbSuTq-I/AAAAAAAACvo/417FVe8f-88ffMIg6uU0UEzS47DFi4y_wCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h269/rainbowEarthAngel.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">screencap courtesy of Raw Danger blog</span></div><br /><p>Rainbow
Harvest is not one of the first names mentioned when discussing the
1980’s unprecedented media elevation of actors in their teens (or
portraying teens) that the decade is often remembered for. The
projects where she flourished were not accorded as much press
attention as those of her better known peers. And there
is definitely a stark divide between the fleshed-out characters she
was entrusted with from the ad hoc coalition of artists to be
discussed here, versus the conventional roles in male-driven films
and TV shows that served as bread and butter in between those juicier
opportunities. In one of the few easily-found interviews conducted
during her career, for the UK magazine Film Review in April 1991. she
already seemed to be aware of this, describing her role in the 1986
boxing drama <i>Streets of Gold,</i>
the directorial debut for future Disney studio chief Joe Roth, thusly
– “I played the young white hopeful’s girlfriend,” – an
otherwise blandly truthful statement at the time, but also a keen
assessment and indirect indictment of how most casting directors
likely regarded her. Which makes it all the more exciting to probe
the individuals who saw her not as some passive “the girl,” but
as an active, “the girl who does...”</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dz6RF0oFoQ0/X_v8I2tMqxI/AAAAAAAACuw/1BtrvL-sCoMPazdidHtHKA3HWPYjR6-lwCLcBGAsYHQ/s375/marisasilveryouth.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dz6RF0oFoQ0/X_v8I2tMqxI/AAAAAAAACuw/1BtrvL-sCoMPazdidHtHKA3HWPYjR6-lwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/marisasilveryouth.jpg" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Second
generation artist Marisa Silver was the first to recognize the raw
talent of Rainbow Harvest in their mutual debut film <i>Old
Enough</i> from 1984. Silver, the
daughter of acclaimed director Joan Micklin Silver, <span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://www.tenement.org/blog/dont-you-forget-about-me-remembering-old-enough-1984/">told
Tenement Museum blog writer Jon Pace in 2014</a></u></span></span>
she had been inspired by the experience of her family moving to New
York City from Cleveland in the late ‘60s, recounting, “I became
friends with a girl from the neighborhood. During the year that I
knew her, I was introduced into her world, which was so different
from one I was used to, and vice versa...[we] spent an enormous
amount of time getting into various forms of trouble. It was a most
excellent year.”</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3OYld9Hv6rs/X_wCuof7r8I/AAAAAAAACvw/CvkRgtg3ZVcHFOVPTl-bBEBUMWCWw_33ACLcBGAsYHQ/s912/old-enough-movie-poster-1984-1020204473.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="912" data-original-width="580" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3OYld9Hv6rs/X_wCuof7r8I/AAAAAAAACvw/CvkRgtg3ZVcHFOVPTl-bBEBUMWCWw_33ACLcBGAsYHQ/w204-h320/old-enough-movie-poster-1984-1020204473.jpg" width="204" /></a></div><br /><p>The
then-23-year-old Silver
created a story about Lonnie (Sarah Boyd), a tweener from an affluent
Upper East Side background who, upon ditching her summer day camp
outing, meets Karen (Harvest), an older girl from a working class
family on the Lower East Side, and, intrigued by each other’s
differences, the two become fast friends. Lonnie is awed by Karen’s
brash outward cool, the manner in how she seems to already be
independent, especially since, by her constant insistence on claiming
to be “11 and 3/4” she’s already feeling the pangs of
adolescent redefinition. But Karen too is having some of her own
self-image questions, which get magnified when she meets Lonnie’s
peers, and especially when Carla, an attractive beautician, moves
into her building. The few months they spend together may not be the
proverbial summer that changes everything for these girls, but their
interval starts the process, and that’s just as important in their
development.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xElaNRxOkNw/X_wDYb35_JI/AAAAAAAACv4/jqyhwXoxcxc7Pc2Cq9FROEqjB3e-imP0ACLcBGAsYHQ/s780/Old-Enough-images-6039161d-62fd-4bce-ade9-bc21857e969.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="780" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xElaNRxOkNw/X_wDYb35_JI/AAAAAAAACv4/jqyhwXoxcxc7Pc2Cq9FROEqjB3e-imP0ACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/Old-Enough-images-6039161d-62fd-4bce-ade9-bc21857e969.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>In
<span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://www.filminquiry.com/old-enough-1984-review/">a
2017 essay for Film Inquiry</a></u></span></span>,
writer and RogerEbert.com Fellow Sasha Kohan makes several points
about Silver’s graceful, generous presentation of all her
characters, not just the leads. She writes, “I never fully
appreciate the differences in how female characters are portrayed
when directed by men versus women until I see something like <i>Old
Enough</i>. It’s a wonderful
thing, to see women and girls in film playing with and up against
each other in ways that are neither annoying to us nor antagonistic
to each other, neither silly nor self-serious – they just are. The
major difference in seeing female characters under the eye of a
female director is that the audience is rarely manipulated into
taking sides...the entire cast of characters and family members are
all somewhat, impressively (even in the much smaller roles)
well-rounded and not totally predictable...” Kohan goes on to
observe, “So much of <i>Old Enough</i>
is about looking and seeing, making observations and reacting to them
by way of imitation...The significance of creating and crafting one’s
appearance, especially as a young girl who only begins to find
herself by imitating someone else, comes up all over the place,”
laying out the pattern of succession in how Karen takes cues from the
upstairs cosmetologist, Lonnie takes cues from Karen, and Lonnie’s
little sister Diane (played by Alyssa Milano in her acting debut)
will soon be taking cues from her.</p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>Old
Enough </i>was premiered at the 1984
Sundance Film Festival, the first year the festival had adopted
“Sundance” as its name, and was released by Orion Classics later
in August, a few months after the release of the better-remembered
teenage breakthrough film of that year, John Hughes’ <i>Sixteen
Candles</i>. While it was not able
to garner the press that film and its equally captivating lead
actress Molly Ringwald commanded, it was very well reviewed, and
actively solicited to its prime audience, with Rainbow Harvest and
Sarah Boyd appearing in an on-camera segment for Nickelodeon’s
entertainment news program <i>“Standby: Lights! Camera! Action!”
</i>with Leonard Nimoy. Harvest was
subsequently cast in the aforementioned film <i>Streets of
Gold</i>, along with guest star
roles on highly-rated series of the era - <i>“Miami Vice,”
“21 Jump Street,” </i>and
<i>“Father Dowling Mysteries”</i>
- which, as the synonymous superfan “Raw Danger” described in <span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://rawdanger.com/2017/10/10/re-rainbow-harvest/">his
October 2017 appreciation</a></u></span></span>,
all amounted to playing “kind girlfriend of dumb lunkhead bad guy.”
But soon, another collective of women would provide her the role
that has become her most-loved and remembered.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bu8ufJ0mSOc/X_v-_SeTwZI/AAAAAAAACu8/OReFxLHx7GMb53yTP-h_s9BGvRXzoQprgCLcBGAsYHQ/s508/virginiaperfilimmpubcrop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="499" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bu8ufJ0mSOc/X_v-_SeTwZI/AAAAAAAACu8/OReFxLHx7GMb53yTP-h_s9BGvRXzoQprgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/virginiaperfilimmpubcrop.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KyOZm8j-7-E/X_v_B1AY5nI/AAAAAAAACvA/KzFDZF5XKFgHSKNgVAwKxjMQ-yMvYtCmQCLcBGAsYHQ/s508/marinasargentimmpubcrop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="491" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KyOZm8j-7-E/X_v_B1AY5nI/AAAAAAAACvA/KzFDZF5XKFgHSKNgVAwKxjMQ-yMvYtCmQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/marinasargentimmpubcrop.jpg" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Virginia
Perfili was a Detroit-area producer who, with established local
musician Jimmy Lifton, launched Orphan Records in 1975, and expanded
their operation to making commercials and music videos. After earning
accolades from major labels and mentions in Billboard magazine, they
embarked on making a feature film. A script was commissioned from the
writing team Annette and Gina Cascone, creators of the young adult
book series <i>“Deadtime Stories,”</i> modeled on the enduring
classic “The Monkey’s Paw,” titled <i>Mirror Mirror</i>. Marina
Sargenti, who had previously helmed shorts for Perfili & Lifton’s
Orphan Eyes production outfit, reworked the script and directed the
film, and all three of them agreed on Rainbow Harvest for the leading
role.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E_Km1f3WMNc/X_wIBo0fTZI/AAAAAAAACwE/vD9FZndGv7MLy1nW8HUtXGL4ZFxyl4xrACLcBGAsYHQ/s1238/mirrormirroronesheetcrop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1238" data-original-width="826" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E_Km1f3WMNc/X_wIBo0fTZI/AAAAAAAACwE/vD9FZndGv7MLy1nW8HUtXGL4ZFxyl4xrACLcBGAsYHQ/w214-h320/mirrormirroronesheetcrop.jpg" width="214" /></a></div><i><p><i><br /></i></p></i><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Mirror
Mirror</i> centers on Megan, an introverted girl given to gothic
presentation, transplanted into a conventional suburban city and
school after the death of her father, coming under the malevolent
influence of a haunted mirror, one that seems to have been involved
with several previous instances of horror in the past. Despite having
made a caring friend in Nikki (Kristin Dattilo), Megan uses the
mirror to indulge selfish long-dormant wishes, to the point where
even when her conscience kicks in, the dark forces are now dictating
to her.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TODkG8xLJ_I/X_wNOq-_zBI/AAAAAAAACws/FN5BgHY871o-zMlCDwE2QTzh-vkhr8CiQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1080/mirrormirrorgaze.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1080" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TODkG8xLJ_I/X_wNOq-_zBI/AAAAAAAACws/FN5BgHY871o-zMlCDwE2QTzh-vkhr8CiQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/mirrormirrorgaze.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>In
her Film Review interview, Harvest expressed her love of horror
movies, and it is surely her affection for the genre that fueled her
performance, which has earned accolades decades after its release.
Kate Hagan, a writer and director of community at the script perusal
website The Black List, <span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://blog.blcklst.com/31-days-of-feminist-horror-films-mirror-mirror-579de6558242">observed
in 2017</a></u></span></span>, “What <i>Mirror Mirror</i> lacks in
performance and budget is made up for in terms of the universality of
its themes: the teenage girl as pariah turned alpha predator is a
classic story, but [the] inclusion of Megan’s recent grief on top
of that outcast status gives her an adult awareness of pain that her
peers cannot comprehend...Megan’s pain is so immense that she
doesn’t even realize that the power of the mirror has wormed its
way into her psyche and begins acting out for her...Rainbow Harvest
serves up some of contemporary horror cinema’s finest looks in this
film, and it’s a pity she’s been lost to the sands of cinematic
time since then — her pain feels legitimate in the way only teenage
girl pain can...The specificity of the torment, triumph, and trauma
endured by Megan shows the necessity of female authorship in horror:
it takes a woman to truly convey the pain of femininity in
lacerating, uncomfortable detail.”</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jFJGCuAdU3w/X_wMmhPVPuI/AAAAAAAACwk/9J_qj2mVQzYprPFQ_QRa9SISTy_P_yKswCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/mirrormirrorspiderhatlockers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jFJGCuAdU3w/X_wMmhPVPuI/AAAAAAAACwk/9J_qj2mVQzYprPFQ_QRa9SISTy_P_yKswCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/mirrormirrorspiderhatlockers.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Horror
enthusiast G.G. Graham points to the emphasis on female friendship
and the near-irrelevance of boys to the proceedings in <span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://www.nightmarishconjurings.com/2020/07/20/retrospective-reflecting-on-mirror-mirror/">her
July 2020 essay on the film</a></u></span></span>, writing, “Megan
and Nikki are allowed to genuinely be friends, with a relationship
that develops in a way that feels natural. There’s no undercurrent
of ulterior motive or competition between them…[And in] an unusual
reversal, the boys in the film are reduced to second bananas,
accessories to the girls’ passions and ambitions. By the time a
fully demonic mirror possessed Megan gets around to trying to seduce
[her bully’s] boyfriend, it seems motivated more by her desire to
test her newfound sexual agency than anything else. When she finds
him lacking, she disposes of him like a broken toy, commanding the
demon to clean up the mess, confident in her supernatural power to
claim another conquest.”</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ntyi6VaKfLg/X_wSN9HTzcI/AAAAAAAACw4/5utYoOzDya8eAqMF4QS2z6a3rLtmGiIzgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/rainbowharvestfilmreview0491.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1706" data-original-width="2048" height="267" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ntyi6VaKfLg/X_wSN9HTzcI/AAAAAAAACw4/5utYoOzDya8eAqMF4QS2z6a3rLtmGiIzgCLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h267/rainbowharvestfilmreview0491.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>By contrast, the
Film Review interview Harvest participated in to promote the UK
release of <i>Mirror Mirror</i>
ends up revealing way more dispiriting attitudes of the writer and
the publication than it does about the movie itself, beginning with
its demeaning pun headline, “RAINBOW WORRIER.” Its opening
sentence reads, “So what’s the first thing you ask an actress
named Rainbow Harvest? Whether her colorful name is for real, right?”
The snark and condescension continues, as he pursues a ridiculous
theory linking her to River and Joaquin Phoenix, since they also had
a sister named Rainbow, dismisses her resume as
“blink-and-you’ll-miss-them film roles” before calling <i>Mirror
Mirror</i> her first lead (erasing
<i>Old Enough</i>), slags the
very project she’s promoting as, “a middling ‘malice through
the looking glass’ movie,” and spends more time lingering on her
observations about financial hardship. He closes with a backhanded
compliment of a plug for “a classy telemovie, <i>Fever</i>,
starring Armand Assante and Sam Neill,” an HBO production where, as
blogger Raw Danger notes for postscript, Harvest had two lines and
less than two minutes of screen time.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6NhSj38Eplw/X_wIrz8rDAI/AAAAAAAACwM/7lpsWbvz0L82T4Cut51YgdJ1hqCFU4cKACLcBGAsYHQ/s546/mirrormirror1990detroitpremiere.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="546" height="237" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6NhSj38Eplw/X_wIrz8rDAI/AAAAAAAACwM/7lpsWbvz0L82T4Cut51YgdJ1hqCFU4cKACLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h237/mirrormirror1990detroitpremiere.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><i><br /></i><p></p><p><i>Mirror
Mirror </i>was given a small 15 city
theatrical release in the summer of 1990, with enthusiastic coverage
in genre publications like Fangoria, before finding its ultimate
success on home video a year later, where its unique “hologram”
cover drew a substantial amount of blind rentals. Shortly before the
film’s release, Harvest received arguably her largest potential
household exposure, as a recurring character on the Allan
Burns-created sitcom <i>“FM” </i>with
Robert Hays, playing a wisecracking technical support provider for a
public radio station; her character name, Daryl Tarses, was likely a
hat tip to actor and sitcom showrunner Jay Tarses, whom Burns had
previously worked with on <i>“The Duck Factory</i>.”
By the time this one-two push reached the public, Harvest had likely
already booked and/or filmed the other projects that are about to be
addressed here, and the combined power of these performances would be
a turning point for her upward trajectory. Or, at least, they should
have been.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mJ2mVaHg-ZQ/X_v_XP5imXI/AAAAAAAACvM/VHgicTS_g84Za_xlZcpNeBzZH4UXPAmjgCLcBGAsYHQ/s250/michellepaymar.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="188" data-original-width="250" height="241" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mJ2mVaHg-ZQ/X_v_XP5imXI/AAAAAAAACvM/VHgicTS_g84Za_xlZcpNeBzZH4UXPAmjgCLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h241/michellepaymar.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Acclaimed
documentarian Michelle Paymar, who had previously directed (with
Roberta Grossman) <i>Sippie</i>,
a 1983 profile of blues singer Sippie Wallace, and <i>For Our
Lives</i>, a 1985 debunking of myths
of the AIDS crisis of the day, chose the work of a gay teen prodigy
from Ohio to make her first, and to date only, narrative fiction
film. Playwright Michael Sargent started writing at 17, and while a
student at UCLA, won an American College Theatre Festival new play
award for <i>When Esther Saw the Light</i>,
the production headlined by then-UCLA acting student Jack Black. His
play <i>And Another Honkytonk Girl Says She Will</i>
was initially conceived and staged as one-half of an umbrella work
titled <i>Big Boy</i> when he
was 20 years old, before reworking it for the screen for Paymar, who
shot it under the aegis of the American Film Institute for release in
1990.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yn--eGqBU5g/X_wJIwyRpJI/AAAAAAAACwY/_rK9YXW8zCYzMhc2kT-sCrJ2HHshi3BfwCLcBGAsYHQ/s595/htg1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="595" height="272" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yn--eGqBU5g/X_wJIwyRpJI/AAAAAAAACwY/_rK9YXW8zCYzMhc2kT-sCrJ2HHshi3BfwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h272/htg1.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">screencap courtesy of Raw Danger blog</span></div><p><br /></p><p>Paymar's 30 minute film of <i>Another Honkytonk Girl</i> presents
Harvest as Adeline, a girl in
rural Texas, abandoned
by her mother and raised by
her
taciturn father, who yearns to be a famous singer, and who
has recently embraced her
desirability by men. In an
odyssey reminiscent of the Harry Nilsson song “1941” and Claude
Watham’s 1973 rock drama <i>That’ll Be the Day, </i>she
romances a local boy who impregnates her, then after giving birth,
she leaves the child with her father to hitchhike to Nashville. After
meeting unsavory men along the way, including an “Uncle Frank”
who agrees to help her make connections but spends an uncomfortable
amount of time remarking on her resemblance to her mother, she
becomes a minor local success. But when the father of her child comes
hoping to reconnect, she rejects him, and afterward contemplates just
how similarly she’s followed her mother’s example. Harvest
movingly covers Adeline’s
too-fast evolution from wide-eyed innocence to hardened
self-interest, unambiguously
presenting her range. Unfortunately, by the nature of its
production as a grant-subsidized short, outside of festivals and
museum-style screenings, it has been the most difficult of her
performances to see.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-knwxVBY4Cfo/X_v_ozWtE9I/AAAAAAAACvU/Abf2HOGUJSkyY-VtRA7_GDzr-bDgzpXTACLcBGAsYHQ/s719/ninashengold.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="482" data-original-width="719" height="215" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-knwxVBY4Cfo/X_v_ozWtE9I/AAAAAAAACvU/Abf2HOGUJSkyY-VtRA7_GDzr-bDgzpXTACLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h215/ninashengold.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>The
1991 ABC TV movie <i>Earth Angel</i>
was among the last of what had been a dependable staple of network
programming, the low-impact comedy-romance comfort film, with
familiar well-loved actors, which would ultimately migrate to cable
channels as Lifetime, Hallmark, and the ABC-owned Freeform. It was
the first film credit for playwright and young adult author Nina
Shengold, <a href="https://readvoid.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/interview-nina-shengold/">who mordantly observed in 2013</a>, “[I] always assumed I’d
have to earn my living at something else. Writing TV movies pays a
lot better than waitressing...Anyone who’s not cranking out
bestsellers had better be prepared to multitask. My working title for
several of my TV scripts was <i>The Mortgage Must Be Paid</i>.”
However in that same interview, she stated, “As a screenwriter, I
tell a story entirely in visual images and dialogue. There’s no
inner monologue, no way to convey a character’s thoughts and
emotions except through what [she] says and does.”</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_r4eNWfb8Cs/X_wTxJraYOI/AAAAAAAACxE/jBwgw161GGQmUO80I100nGLuq7uei29MgCLcBGAsYHQ/s719/EarthAngelUKVHScrop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="466" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_r4eNWfb8Cs/X_wTxJraYOI/AAAAAAAACxE/jBwgw161GGQmUO80I100nGLuq7uei29MgCLcBGAsYHQ/w207-h320/EarthAngelUKVHScrop.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>It
is Shengold’s
insight that injects spice into a story that would appear to be
literally angel-food cake: Angela (Cathy Podewell), a shallow 1962
prom queen, dies in a car wreck before the big night, and in order to
enter Heaven after 30 years in limbo, must perform an indeterminate
good deed in the present for the friends she left behind. Upon
returning, the only person who can see and interact with her is Cindy
(Harvest), the daughter of her bestie Judith (Cindy Williams), who
yearns for the kind of popularity Angela enjoyed, so she attempts to
teach Cindy her tricks while trying to figure out her primary task,
discovering that the two threads are intertwined.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DHpxJySyU-Y/X_wUi5v3NjI/AAAAAAAACxM/ZnuT3-q9DEgElEBFmyenYrOyxBD_tHKuACLcBGAsYHQ/s1329/rainbowEarthAngelCindyWilliamscrop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="890" data-original-width="1329" height="268" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DHpxJySyU-Y/X_wUi5v3NjI/AAAAAAAACxM/ZnuT3-q9DEgElEBFmyenYrOyxBD_tHKuACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h268/rainbowEarthAngelCindyWilliamscrop.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Though
sporting a male director – longtime Brian DePalma A.D. Joe
Napolitano, making his directorial debut – <i>Earth Angel</i>
presents itself as a ladies-first affair, beginning with the fact
that the three main women (Williams, Podewell, Harvest) are billed
first in the credits, before Mark Hamill or Erik Estrada, who would
normally occupy a top spot. Its best moments benefit from Shengold
injecting a particular empathy in the story most associated with
female creatives, Once Angela and Cindy meet, the story plays almost
like a benign variant on <i>Mirror Mirror</i>:<i>
</i>like Megan in that film, Cindy
has been thrust into an uncomfortable new social situation by her
mother’s return to her home town, finding herself in a similarly
loner-ish status in high school, suddenly granted all the things she
wants through supernatural intervention, and soon to discover that
she has made bad choices. Cindy’s mom Judith is not resigned
to spinsterhood, but
is energetic and eager to
date again.
And Shengold’s treatment of the male rivals is rather nuanced for
this predictable story: Hamill’s nerd doesn’t get instant
sympathy, he must first shed his longstanding resentment of his high
school years and earn real happiness, and Estrada’s jock is not a
one-note villain, just an overgrown former hero who is also worthy of
love, but needs to get over his own hype and will have a harder time
doing so. It may be fluff in a resume that is built on acting heft,
but if <i>Old Enough</i> is
for the arthouse denizens, and <i>Mirror Mirror</i>
is for the monster kids, <i>Earth Angel</i>
is the Harvest movie for the parents and grandparents, reinforcing
her wide appeal.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nLszqPuR2RE/X_v_y8tQLHI/AAAAAAAACvY/ozJJJpwPhwYi8Bl7_sZQ3mOAEglfKRnqACLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/CarolMonPere.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="891" data-original-width="1200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nLszqPuR2RE/X_v_y8tQLHI/AAAAAAAACvY/ozJJJpwPhwYi8Bl7_sZQ3mOAEglfKRnqACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/CarolMonPere.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>The
final film in this overview combines recurrent elements from these
earlier entries: like <i>Old Enough</i>,
it was loosely autobiographical; like <i>Earth Angel</i>,
it was set in 1962 and made for television; and like the director of
<i>And Another Honkytonk Girl</i>,
was the first-time narrative effort from a woman previously
established in documentaries. <i>Pink Lightning </i>was
the pet project of Carol Monpere, a veteran multihyphenate whose
credits included script editing the 1973 Emmy-awarded Hallmark Hall
of Fame production of <i>The Borrowers </i>for
NBC, writing the screenplay adaptation for the children’s book <i>The
Mouse and His Child</i> for its 1977
animated film version, and directing the PBS expose of California
water rights <i>The Battle of Westlands</i>.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--jFpeCknguo/X_wVMuktL3I/AAAAAAAACxY/iXUI_hFWPiADV75a90CNSlS7lmAVWmEZACLcBGAsYHQ/s909/pinklightningjapanpostercrop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="909" data-original-width="628" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--jFpeCknguo/X_wVMuktL3I/AAAAAAAACxY/iXUI_hFWPiADV75a90CNSlS7lmAVWmEZACLcBGAsYHQ/w221-h320/pinklightningjapanpostercrop.jpg" width="221" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>As
lain out in a profile by Mike Hughes for Gannett Newspapers, Monpere
looked back to her youth in Fresno to create a story of five girls
bonded by their revelries in a car they shared ownership on, and
their activities in the days before the bachelorette night and
wedding day of their ersatz leader Tookie (Sarah Buxton). Tookie
already has some ambivalence about the upcoming nuptials, aspiring to
a career not conducive to a small-town marriage, and aware that her
best friend Jill (Martha Byrne) has previous experience with her
fiancee, and that he may be settling by marrying her. Jill is the
most sexually adventurous of the group, and while she’s not
stigmatized, she is not often fulfilled by her encounters either.
Traditionally pretty Sharon (Jennifer Guthrie) is being groomed for
what is likely a life in pageants, while her reluctant competitor
Andy (Jennifer Blanc) has more bohemian ambitions that don’t draw
boys’ attention. Monpere drew directly from her friends group to
create the characters, but also imbued aspects of her personality in
them as well, remarking to Hughes, "There's something of me in
everyone, except the very pretty one... They have had what I would
consider very successful lives. I think it's a very strong group of
women."</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6DImB5LJPk4/X_wcU5gEFGI/AAAAAAAACyE/HgSh3KzfbOwLSdKlkCeALq69BSArE66AACLcBGAsYHQ/s628/pinklightningjapancastincar.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="628" height="189" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6DImB5LJPk4/X_wcU5gEFGI/AAAAAAAACyE/HgSh3KzfbOwLSdKlkCeALq69BSArE66AACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h189/pinklightningjapancastincar.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>As
Pooh,
the quintet member who is already married with a child, Harvest does
not have as much screen time as her co-stars, but makes the most of
it as her character represents what is supposed to be the ideal to the other girls, but gradually reveals she is painfully having second thoughts about the whole institution of marriage in general. In one standout
scene, Tookie and Jill drop in, and find her on top of the
refrigerator, near-catatonic with dread over learning she is pregnant again, perhaps
even contemplating drastic moves to counter it. When the friends try
to talk her down, she launches into a fiery monologue on their
comparable freedom against the pressure of being a wife in this place
and time:</p><p><i><br /></i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2DQaAweYX78/X_wtg06IdkI/AAAAAAAACyQ/_gJcVY-QCHsLGVOVeCmCPbA-XU4m05fagCLcBGAsYHQ/s1000/pinklightningIMG_0307.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="725" data-original-width="1000" height="290" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2DQaAweYX78/X_wtg06IdkI/AAAAAAAACyQ/_gJcVY-QCHsLGVOVeCmCPbA-XU4m05fagCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h290/pinklightningIMG_0307.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><i><br /></i><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>“What do you know? What do any of
you know about anything? You aren’t married, you don’t have a
husband! You don’t have to get up in the middle of the night with a
baby. You don’t have to iron </i><i><b>six</b></i><i>
shirts with light starch every week! You don’t have to make chicken
livers because they’re </i><i><b>Norman’s favorite dish</b></i><i>!
You don’t know anything about anything! I try so hard...I try to do
everything so right. But if I have another baby so soon I’ll never wear a two-piece bathing suit again!”</i></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dXQsU3u8LZk/X_wtwhz-3VI/AAAAAAAACyY/WG71sTvc1Cc-cpYm2hvHdtlfHgOJIVEvwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/pinklightningcap970.1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dXQsU3u8LZk/X_wtwhz-3VI/AAAAAAAACyY/WG71sTvc1Cc-cpYm2hvHdtlfHgOJIVEvwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/pinklightningcap970.1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Whatever
critical press was accorded to <i>Pink Lightning </i>upon
its July 8<sup>th</sup>,
1991 prime time premiere on Fox<i>,</i>
beyond the Gannett wire article on Monpere, seemed to be written
entirely by men determined to miss the point of her film. The most
ridiculously cruel review, from a television editor for the Deseret
News who shall not be named, spends nearly a third of its space
trashing the Fox network’s output of TV movies in general, refers
to the writer/director’s autobiographical element as the most
“frightening” detail, and concludes by recommending that viewers
interested in stories from the past watch the more conventionally
male-centered baseball documentary <i>When It Was a Game</i>,
which premiered that same night on HBO. Rick Kogen of the Chicago
Tribune, in a brief assessment, effectively damned it with faint
praise, calling it “modest,” “not unappealing,” and “a
harmless diversion.” And Chris Willman from the Los Angeles Times
was willing to state, “Monpere directs with special sensitivity to
young women’s emotions,” but only after he proclaims, “it’s
indicative of a paucity of imagination [that] filmmakers seem to
believe those precipitous Kennedy years were the only time anybody
ever lost their innocence,” despite the fact that “loss of
innocence” was never a theme of the story in the first place, but
rather
the limited options available for ambitious women in 1962.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-go5GuxT5xFg/X_wZyBnTJFI/AAAAAAAACx4/4NsP49UFhwk5ar3cNTlDqmWqIFLjt9q5ACLcBGAsYHQ/s687/Mirror%2BMirror%2B%25281990%2529_022%2BRainbow%2BHarvest.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="687" height="303" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-go5GuxT5xFg/X_wZyBnTJFI/AAAAAAAACx4/4NsP49UFhwk5ar3cNTlDqmWqIFLjt9q5ACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h303/Mirror%2BMirror%2B%25281990%2529_022%2BRainbow%2BHarvest.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>There
are no more credits for Rainbow Harvest after this point. It is not
known if, after the completion of these films, she continued to go on
auditions or was considered for more projects, and if so, how long
that stretch of time was. Nor is it known what the ultimate
motivation was for her to leave acting behind. One hopes it was a
simple lack of interest in the metaphorical running of the treadmill
that is generally necessary to be a working performer. But
one also has to be cognizant
of the unpleasant circumstances that other lauded actresses of her
moment had to deal with, some only recently coming to light, and
gravely contemplate those possibilities. Ultimately, it has been
determined that it is not for us to know. There is some degree of
public record that indicates Ms. Harvest has transitioned to a
satisfying private life, and in the greater human comedy, that is
more important than being a household name. As the late Margot
Kidder, immortalized in <i>Black Christmas </i>and
<i>Superman</i>, once
observed, "Acting's fun, but life's more important."</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6D68SlSp8rA/X_wWqpHBOEI/AAAAAAAACxk/d5RMNqaO0EQf7HV5S1buz1Ungi2OJS2jACLcBGAsYHQ/s300/rainbowvotivecandles.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="224" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6D68SlSp8rA/X_wWqpHBOEI/AAAAAAAACxk/d5RMNqaO0EQf7HV5S1buz1Ungi2OJS2jACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h224/rainbowvotivecandles.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>But
for fans like this author, there is a lingering frustration that,
when considering one of the immediate thoughts conjured when
the topic of movies from the ‘80s comes into conversation is the
proliferation of many talented young women to world stardom...and
their journey to either long and evolving careers, as with Laura
Dern, or to less frequent output but still a respected and constant
status of awareness, as Molly Ringwald...in that promising time of
high interest, Rainbow Harvest did not enjoy the opportunity to
flourish in a similar manner. And
considering that, as lain out here, her standout performances were
often met with indifference or outright hostility, and when not
working with imaginative female creators, she was frequently
relegated to thinly-developed roles in the dominating genres of the
day directed by men, it’s hard not to feel angry that mediocre
minds deep-sixed her potential.</p><p><br /></p><p>It
is further sobering to consider that, while all of these women have
remained active and contented artists, their destinies were not to be
in crafting feature films
either. After directing a few more projects for the major studios,
<i>Old Enough</i> creator
Marisa Silver shifted her interests to fiction writing. After
producing three sequels to <i>Mirror Mirror</i>,
two of which were also directed by women<i>, </i>Virgina
Perfili found a longer career in social service organizations, though
she and her longtime producing partner Jimmy Lifton have returned to
low-budget horror production. <i>Mirror Mirror</i>’s
director Marina Sargenti would helm two TV movies and episodes of
<i>“Models Inc.”</i> and
<i>“Xena: Warrior Princess</i>”
then segue to the documentary world, executive producing MTV’s
<i>“America or Busted”</i>
series. <i>Honkytonk Girl</i>’s
Michelle Paymar has performed multiple tasks of directing, producing,
and story editing several non-fiction television programs, along with projects for NGOs and non-profits as Amnesty International and Ayubowan Women's Project in Sri Lanka, and received
several field-related awards for her work: she is currently promoting
an eight-year-gestating passion project documentary, <i>From Cairo to the Cloud: The
World of the Cairo Geniza. Earth Angel</i>
writer Nina Shengold scripted some more TV movies in the ‘90s, and
a recent short film with Melissa Leo, <i>No Shoulder</i>,
in 2005, but has remained focused on stage and literary projects,
along with teaching writing at several colleges. Carol Monpere would
write two more TV movies, then produce and direct documentaries in
the noughts, until breast cancer claimed her life in 2006.</p><p><br /></p><p>The gone-too-soon filmmaker Lynn Shelton once said, “Can I be
obvious and say there is probably a double standard for male vs.
female directors? Sadly, I think that’s actually the case. And it
probably stems from the fact that there are proportionately so many
fewer women directors than men ones, that each project is perhaps
more closely scrutinized for its content.”</p><p><br /></p><p>Rainbow
Harvest's curriculum vitae, along with the women who made it notable, found a worse treatment than harsher scrutiny; since it existed within small-profile indies, horror tales watched on home video, TV movies, festival shorts - genres and venues dismissed by the general critical community - they were given
virtually no scrutiny at all. The soft bigotry of low expectations. Would they have
benefited from what the internet offers today...sites for niche
fandoms to congregate with no obligations or dependencies on the
monoculture, and a wider array of voices from all genders to opine...had these been available during this period of creation? </p><p><br /></p><p>Or, perhaps the
better question is, now that we indeed have all these elements at our
disposal, why not help them benefit now?</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1vYGGs1SGpw/X_wXODkGY4I/AAAAAAAACxs/nfl1MPp8fcQF2cOqMxsloQ54B3PaHf-pACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/rainbow-harvest-dc6331b9-eafd-4aea-9c20-07aabff005a-resize-750.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1vYGGs1SGpw/X_wXODkGY4I/AAAAAAAACxs/nfl1MPp8fcQF2cOqMxsloQ54B3PaHf-pACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/rainbow-harvest-dc6331b9-eafd-4aea-9c20-07aabff005a-resize-750.webp" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-44073449466065685782020-12-31T11:14:00.001-08:002020-12-31T11:15:37.457-08:00One More Nick on the Teens<p>Many things have changed in the long stretch since I first started putting my cultural musings here. But one that has not is my stubborn belief that quantities are gathered from 1 to 10 and not 0 to 9, and unless you are an astrophysicist there is no such thing as Year Zero. Therefore the Teens began in 2011 and ended on this date today. There may be long stretches of silence here as I go about other demands of the world, but there is something to be said that I've kept this blog operating long enough to post a <i>second</i> Best of the Decade list, and there are still correspondents who will read it, especially knowing how much of an ornery cuss I am in sticking to this unpopular system of counting. So thank you up front for finding room in your heart for this fussbudget; everybody needs a little love.</p><p><br /></p><p>And with love comes...</p><p><br /></p><p>THE BEST MOVIES OF THE DECADE</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>13. INSIDE OUT</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pi_Xc21lK90/X-kQPfCh23I/AAAAAAAACrs/oUfDB76hhp8WAoEIGpT-3yy0I7qiYpAuwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/insideoutaltposter.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pi_Xc21lK90/X-kQPfCh23I/AAAAAAAACrs/oUfDB76hhp8WAoEIGpT-3yy0I7qiYpAuwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/insideoutaltposter.jpg" /></a></div>While it seems that some lustre has fallen from the Pixar brand since, like any other enterprise, they have been tapping into their existing characters to offer audiences comfortable familiarity, when they choose a challenging topic, they still prove themselves peerless in rising to the opportunity. After all, what has felt more impenetrable for generations of parents than unlocking the workings of a young child's mind? Pete Doctor and his brain trust spent years making sure the psychology was accurate, and integrated some of their own self-reflection into the plotting, and that intensity yielded a entertaining and, pardon the pun, thoughtful recognition of how all emotions do ultimately intersect for the better.<div><br /><div><br /><div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>12. FAST COLOR</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hz_PxNy1TnQ/X-ktlM4FtGI/AAAAAAAACsA/BQpqDRrvq18-roe8VGmeuRscfGwm3BUiACLcBGAsYHQ/s2015/fastcolor-quinton-thomas-asset.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2015" data-original-width="1344" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hz_PxNy1TnQ/X-ktlM4FtGI/AAAAAAAACsA/BQpqDRrvq18-roe8VGmeuRscfGwm3BUiACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/fastcolor-quinton-thomas-asset.jpg" /></a></div>When it comes to the spectacle genres, there are several examples of Black-fronted action-adventures and horror stories, but very few fantasy outings, a particularly frustrating matter in light of how popular such material has been with Black viewers. So on that low metric this would already be a welcome contribution. But what director/co-screenwriter Julia Hart does to elevate this to greatness is present a compelling generational drama among its main characters that would sustain an entire movie without any supernatural element, combine it with a new contemplation of a superhero origin story, and finally subvert the kind of expected showdown climax with a cathartic theme of rapprochement and hope that feels earned and not contrived.<b><br /></b><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>11. PHOENIX</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9n0HPEH56ic/X-mBh6hwc0I/AAAAAAAACsM/LAbLjvH0caYKxiuhBTpNPDGrPuX2EBDygCLcBGAsYHQ/s1353/phoenixcriterioncrop.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1353" data-original-width="971" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9n0HPEH56ic/X-mBh6hwc0I/AAAAAAAACsM/LAbLjvH0caYKxiuhBTpNPDGrPuX2EBDygCLcBGAsYHQ/w230-h320/phoenixcriterioncrop.jpg" width="230" /></a></div>Beginning from the source novel <a href="https://projectorhasbeendrinking.blogspot.com/2015/10/bringing-home-ashes.html">RETURN FROM THE ASHES</a>, depicting a woman after WWII re-seducing the lover that does not recognize her (and perhaps betrayed her), which previously inspired one of my favorite unsung films, then essentially rubbishing it and starting from scratch in the manner of Coppola with Mario Puzo or P.T. Anderson with Upton Sinclair, director Christian Petzold and screenwriter Harun Farocki keenly take escapist pulp and expand upon it to depict characters, and thus a nation, that for decades, lost the very notion of pulp, pop culture, and escape. What long ago had been conceived as an an entertaining but not exceptional spin on the "who's going to die last" question to which many potboiler stories hinge upon becomes unforgettable by flipping the question instead to become "how do you go on living."<p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>10. ELLE</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KgnBiDsxIqM/X-mWUurqTAI/AAAAAAAACsY/k_RCdV12L0AvqvQk02gKMohvqFvc-3g6QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1829/elleverhoevenitalian.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1829" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KgnBiDsxIqM/X-mWUurqTAI/AAAAAAAACsY/k_RCdV12L0AvqvQk02gKMohvqFvc-3g6QCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/elleverhoevenitalian.jpg" /></a></div>As an uneasy but necessary discussion about women's sexual abuse and trauma took focus in the tail end of the decade, many were shocked at the hardened observations of some women of earlier generations and life experiences, where they in effect shrugged off horrifying events they endured. In the heightened but all-too-plausible environment created by Paul Verhoeven here, we get a significant taste of the minefield such women have steeled themselves to navigate and rise above, with allusions to the manner in which years of outside hostility and interior stewing create such a mindset, delivering on themes that were previously touched on in SHOWGIRLS but ultimately muddied in its disjointed blend of camp and grit. <b><br /></b><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>9. BOYHOOD</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ReHyYWMb6Ag/X-pNJgaxEQI/AAAAAAAACss/Ue9zqj-XST8YjQ_WzL-1nd_d2MbdBEzIACLcBGAsYHQ/s1429/Boyhood10-WEB.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1429" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ReHyYWMb6Ag/X-pNJgaxEQI/AAAAAAAACss/Ue9zqj-XST8YjQ_WzL-1nd_d2MbdBEzIACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Boyhood10-WEB.jpg" /></a></div>In the 90s, after watching the first batch of films Richard Linklater directed, my roommate said, unprompted, "I think he's a got a THE GODFATHER in him." While the idea of a family epic sounded odd for a filmmaker finding drama in the outwardly bland incidents of people, consider that Francis Ford Coppola had earned praise for similarly small intimate films as YOU'RE A BIG BOY NOW and THE RAIN PEOPLE before making that iconic film. As such, Linklater did fulfill that prediction, demonstrating how, over the span of years, moments that seemed inconsequential impact and loom large in the formative time of adolescence. And by taking it further with shooting in yearly installments to cement the verisimilitude, took the kind of bold production risk that Coppola probably contemplated in his own youth. To say that ordinary life is complex sounds quaint, but when presented in this chronicle, the evidence hits home.<br /><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>8. YOUNG ADULT</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kEeq_-EGR3U/X-rDA9WW5AI/AAAAAAAACs4/9LTYD97HyFIay2qQt61BJasGOUQZ188_ACLcBGAsYHQ/s2203/youngadultteaserposter.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2203" data-original-width="1460" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kEeq_-EGR3U/X-rDA9WW5AI/AAAAAAAACs4/9LTYD97HyFIay2qQt61BJasGOUQZ188_ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/youngadultteaserposter.jpg" /></a></div>Back in 2011, where most of the attention in the film community was taken up either by the complacent nostalgia of THE ARTIST and THE HELP or the existential questions of THE TREE OF LIFE and MELANCHOLIA, director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody, reteaming after their successful collaboration on JUNO, took the truly ballsy step of asking audiences to find kinship and empathy with a destructive monster who seemingly could not or would not repent for their damage. Roger Ebert famously said that the gift movies provide is to allow viewers to experience lives they would never know, and even though this protagonist, mired in self-loathing over the failed promises of the past, is a person one would hope to never know or emulate, this glimpse into their broken heart is as much a moving revelation as any comparably upstanding character.<p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>7. DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WMqET5MtHXk/X-ri8KlNWPI/AAAAAAAACtE/DZi8R3Xfww0uTknv1mFP6zcA17_UfqF6wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1201/dawsoncityfrozentimeprerelease.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1201" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WMqET5MtHXk/X-ri8KlNWPI/AAAAAAAACtE/DZi8R3Xfww0uTknv1mFP6zcA17_UfqF6wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/dawsoncityfrozentimeprerelease.jpg" /></a></div>If Bill Morrison had decided to make a documentary just on discovering hundreds of nitrate film reels in a remote Yukon outpost, that probably would have been an interesting story in itself. Or if he'd told the story of that former Great White North boomtown, that would have been informative also. But by taking the time to look deeply into both their their histories, how they mirrored each other, and the unexpected tangents they steered into, he was able to lay out a larger, sprawling tale of ambition, capitalism, hubris, and for some involved parties, recovery, taking this beyond the realm of dry information about the past, and into a stunning hypnotic odyssey. It stands as a grounded cautionary tale and a dream narrative.<p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>6. PARASITE</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3y4Leqy8foQ/X-r7C3ZSIRI/AAAAAAAACtQ/AgbZ4Qj8E6snGfxLdghH1ER1--pf2ae3wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1481/parasitefanposter.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1481" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3y4Leqy8foQ/X-r7C3ZSIRI/AAAAAAAACtQ/AgbZ4Qj8E6snGfxLdghH1ER1--pf2ae3wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/parasitefanposter.jpg" /></a></div>Bong Joon-ho has been swinging for the fences from his first feature forward, and to have a resume where MEMORIES OF MURDER is your second film is what every auteur dreams of. PARASITE is the culmination of years of telling energetic tales of suspense infused with exploring the ripple effects of class disparity in THE HOST, MOTHER, and SNOWPIERCER. This edition however stands out thanks to its mastery of switching from fear to comedy and back, its mounting stakes leading to a cathartic finish, and yet never letting its pronouncements get larger than the prime focus on its characters and our rooted interest in them. As he has demonstrated in all his best films, no matter the chaos outside, there is always time to stop for family meal.<p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>5. SMALL AXE QUINTET</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9P9Xpj8LHi8/X-v6v3hUTiI/AAAAAAAACtc/Hh7_TTW-cWMIEn-Ff9wZ0Zj7A6_HBX43wCLcBGAsYHQ/s967/smallaxeteaserpostercrop.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="967" data-original-width="630" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9P9Xpj8LHi8/X-v6v3hUTiI/AAAAAAAACtc/Hh7_TTW-cWMIEn-Ff9wZ0Zj7A6_HBX43wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/smallaxeteaserpostercrop.jpg" /></a></div>I would proffer that the reason some chroniclers resist counting a series of films as a single unit is because they rarely get released in the span of one calendar year; the last time I can recall one making that window was Kieslowski's THREE COLORS trilogy. And the puritans screaming, "It's TV!" aren't helping things either. But any sensible cineaste can see that Steve McQueen's collection of overdue stories about West Indian lives in '70s England - their loves, challenges, epiphanies, and activism - have the meticulous composition of all of the director's previous works, and with Amazon's bullish support of other iconoclast artists and desire for theatrical respect, they would have readily released them in cinemas were they not shut down in 2020. Structured like a mixtape, with the strong start of MANGROVE, the bold increase of LOVERS ROCK, the reflective descent of RED WHITE AND BLUE and ALEX WHEATLE, and a conclusion in EDUCATION that makes you want to start the whole thing over again, this may well be McQueen’s stamp on the canon.<p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>4. SORRY TO BOTHER YOU</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jo0CgCkoExY/X-wgFw5i_DI/AAAAAAAACto/HVRTRW_qucwkzK12P13PuoYZJaclCHODgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1500/sorrytobotheryoucollageposter.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jo0CgCkoExY/X-wgFw5i_DI/AAAAAAAACto/HVRTRW_qucwkzK12P13PuoYZJaclCHODgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/sorrytobotheryoucollageposter.jpg" /></a></div>Satire may be what closes on Saturday night, but when it's done right, it captures all of the troublesome parts of a time and place and manages to present it to you in a way that doesn't make you want to regret your existence. And Boots Riley calls out multiple sources of grief of this past decade, and acknowledges how some of them manage to stay indestructible, without leaving the viewer feeling completely pessimistic, deftly blending the "pilgrim's progress" surrealism of O LUCKY MAN! with BLUE COLLAR's still relevant maxim, "They'll do anything to keep you on their line...Everything they do is to keep us in our place." It's laughing to keep from screaming bloody murder, but when the jokes come as quick and correct as they do here, you understand why comedy matters in a bleak time. <p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>3. GRAVITY</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-icmkLiuiKhE/X-wtUZGDcHI/AAAAAAAACt0/UeZWptefscErMg8HHQbZJ_ZjYmhxf-4GwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1928/gravityteaser.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1928" data-original-width="1350" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-icmkLiuiKhE/X-wtUZGDcHI/AAAAAAAACt0/UeZWptefscErMg8HHQbZJ_ZjYmhxf-4GwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/gravityteaser.jpg" /></a></div>While a case can be made that his longtime friend and peer Alejandro González Iñárritu engages in production stunt work meant to draw attention to itself, Alfonso Cuarón has always figured out how to make technical virtuosity still be in the service of a story and not take it over. In this film, he presents astounding visuals (especially when viewed in its native 3D), the kind that audiences seek when going to a big screen event picture, but constrains them to focus almost exclusively on one person and her real time life-or-death crisis above the Earth; effectively staging a literal THE HUMAN VOICE in Space! The existential struggle of the micro of a single soul against the ultimate macro of the vast infinite has rarely been more wondrous, terrifying, and emotional, and Cuarón shows how that balance can be met in craft and in life.<p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>2. O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BhDZxdfM2V4/X-16B7Uec1I/AAAAAAAACuM/D-5CcAr27iMgDvqYK87XPVUXOz82oemxQCLcBGAsYHQ/s275/ojmadeinamerica.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="183" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BhDZxdfM2V4/X-16B7Uec1I/AAAAAAAACuM/D-5CcAr27iMgDvqYK87XPVUXOz82oemxQCLcBGAsYHQ/w213-h320/ojmadeinamerica.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>If anyone not already familiar with the recent history of this country wanted an explanation for the disease that has devoured so much of this decade, this bravura documentary, that unrolled with a furious speed that belied the 7.5 hours of its theatrical release version, is the primer I would offer them. Addressing the longstanding open racial animus Los Angeles law enforcement unleashed upon its Black citizens, and the more covert racial animus that slowly poisoned a once shining hero of the community, and the ugly series of events they spawned, you hear from many people with a stake in the saga, many of whose voices either lacked amplification or got distorted during that maelstrom. And as the participants have some benefit of hindsight in their present to recognize mistakes made, viewers of today will likely all too well recognize how those mistakes led to even worse mistakes in our present. <p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">And after all of that, what could be the one film to represent ten years' worth of thousands of dreamers putting their visions forth on screens of varying size, to sum up everything that was exciting and moving about the art form, and set up a homestead in your head for weeks, months, years after the first viewing? Well, for me, there is only one answer...</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1. HOLY MOTORS</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AS06dtYkCwo/X-2bZwg0EFI/AAAAAAAACuY/6Rw6-v3-qIA8DIC7a_qfjNJeASFUKZ0hQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/HolyMotors_ENG_iTunes_Poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1066" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AS06dtYkCwo/X-2bZwg0EFI/AAAAAAAACuY/6Rw6-v3-qIA8DIC7a_qfjNJeASFUKZ0hQCLcBGAsYHQ/w266-h400/HolyMotors_ENG_iTunes_Poster.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I don't know if I could roust the uninitiated with a sober recitation of the basic outline of this movie - an actor capable of complex changes of appearance travels by stretch limousine to perform a wild array of scenes over the course of one day - because this is a movie that is inebriated with the joy of immersion in other worlds for a short spell. Action, fantasy, discord, regret, death, rebirth, and even a little song and dance - the emotional moments we seek entertainment to reenact for us from the comfort of a cinema seat, whether you're the loner at a matinee wanting a good cry over lost love, or the wide-eyed naif at a midnight show looking to discover some way out sheeit. Like rambunctious children playing house one minute, cowboys the next, and monsters afterward, anything is possible and no ideas are wrong. To invert that old beer commercial, it is Everything You Always Wanted in a Movie...and More. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Or, to libarally quote from my more erudite friend and colleague <a href="https://youtu.be/bcOTuFgQB1M">Alonso Duralde</a>, "It's a movie [that] if you feel like interpreting it, it's open to a lot of things...is this a movie, is this a dream, is this a movie having a dream of being a movie...it just goes into wonderfully weird directions and you have to just kind of stop asking questions after a while and just go with it and follow its own rhythms, but it's rewarding if you allow yourself to do that...this is a movie for movie lovers who really love all kinds of movies and are willing to go on all kinds of rides with a movie...there's a story here if you want there to be one, or not if you don't..."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For a decade that's definitely been a long and suspenseful ride full of inextricably tied instances of elevation and humbling, despair and comfort, fear and hope and the Whole Damned Thing...and no good answers about what is coming next...how can it <i>not </i>be represented by HOLY MOTORS?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Thus I close the door on this year and this decade, and send you my wishes for a grand '20s run, and my promise to help make them grand for you.</div></div><p></p></div></div></div>Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-60129367042151424292020-12-25T10:23:00.000-08:002020-12-25T10:23:50.071-08:002020 Visions Are Enough to Leave One Blindsided<p>After four years of ass-kicking, 2019 somehow finally served the impression things were improving. But that was a delusion brought on by all the buffeting because 2020 happened. And in a most bizarre circumstance, as everyone's personal lives became more fraught, mine became...different. </p><p><br /></p><p>Last year my milestone was reaching 50. This year it was losing a parent. A parent that, well, spent more time being an impediment to my aspirations rather than a supporter. Anna Rita Storelli survived WWII trauma, and fancied tennis and languages. Maybe that explains all the years of clashes we had. There was always love between us, but not a lot of fun. She was publicly likeable, privately difficult. And I’m my mother’s son. </p><p><br /></p><p>Now, in her passing, I possess multiple forms of independence I've not known for years. I do wish it had not been this kind of transition that brought about mine own. I wish a lot of things were different, for everyone I love; it's aching to see so many of them also coping with personal sorrow independent of the world's crisies. But for me, I got all cried out about this specific corner of my life a long time ago. In my altered trajectory, I'm in a better position to help make positive differences for other people, so that's the mission now.</p><p><br /></p><p>I'm tired of 2020. Let's just address the good movies, okay? The Top 13 of 2020:</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>13. LOVE AND MONSTERS</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uD7heshz_30/X-FMTk687aI/AAAAAAAACps/R-N2wOIKfoQHIiSrA5E6CYnpP1wbv_pNQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/loveandmonsters-art-videoSixteenByNineJumbo1600.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="899" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uD7heshz_30/X-FMTk687aI/AAAAAAAACps/R-N2wOIKfoQHIiSrA5E6CYnpP1wbv_pNQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/loveandmonsters-art-videoSixteenByNineJumbo1600.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>12. THE HALF OF IT</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r-9fPRgKt3U/X-FMyFFBWzI/AAAAAAAACp0/uU2wtjvkID8f7Lv3lodBmn5QCSOIfIqQQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/Half_of_It_1_1080p.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r-9fPRgKt3U/X-FMyFFBWzI/AAAAAAAACp0/uU2wtjvkID8f7Lv3lodBmn5QCSOIfIqQQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/Half_of_It_1_1080p.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>11. i'm thinking of ending things</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--vqccT9PL9Y/X-FNS2b3ikI/AAAAAAAACp8/j1iWscotVmYrs4_NFmc2zlr-9UhVrR1IwCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/im-thinking-of-ending-things-2020-jessie-buckley-tulsey-town-ice-cream-scene-review.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="367" data-original-width="600" height="245" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--vqccT9PL9Y/X-FNS2b3ikI/AAAAAAAACp8/j1iWscotVmYrs4_NFmc2zlr-9UhVrR1IwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h245/im-thinking-of-ending-things-2020-jessie-buckley-tulsey-town-ice-cream-scene-review.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>10. THE INVISIBLE MAN</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NDa-LDO8TZ8/X-FNjyZReoI/AAAAAAAACqE/VgWsVKe3lcge1Q2_FUEx1Pxl28iwIXGoQCLcBGAsYHQ/s989/The-Invisible-Man_2-scaled-1-989x659.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="659" data-original-width="989" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NDa-LDO8TZ8/X-FNjyZReoI/AAAAAAAACqE/VgWsVKe3lcge1Q2_FUEx1Pxl28iwIXGoQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h266/The-Invisible-Man_2-scaled-1-989x659.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>9. COLOR OUT OF SPACE</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XCPQCSf_lLc/X-FNzRgAwqI/AAAAAAAACqM/oeV7wk2js50Kc_4hsIHXXREJrM5lQ7KjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/coloroutofspace5e29803c38549.image.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XCPQCSf_lLc/X-FNzRgAwqI/AAAAAAAACqM/oeV7wk2js50Kc_4hsIHXXREJrM5lQ7KjwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/coloroutofspace5e29803c38549.image.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>8. POSSESSOR</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yPRqHuidX54/X-FOCBnxJMI/AAAAAAAACqQ/trX7M6ZLMe0Jxh4C98R9D4ugPx_SSaukwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1920/possessormasked.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yPRqHuidX54/X-FOCBnxJMI/AAAAAAAACqQ/trX7M6ZLMe0Jxh4C98R9D4ugPx_SSaukwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/possessormasked.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>7. DRIVEWAYS</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jOU6zvVRUI4/X-FOT-q0dEI/AAAAAAAACqY/Afo3ZU8wquQg9mK7iJfTqhsZLFiN_g5WwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2001/drivewaysporchlayout.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1079" data-original-width="2001" height="216" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jOU6zvVRUI4/X-FOT-q0dEI/AAAAAAAACqY/Afo3ZU8wquQg9mK7iJfTqhsZLFiN_g5WwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h216/drivewaysporchlayout.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>6. THE VAST OF NIGHT</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x6hBsspmcZI/X-FOfgGYBGI/AAAAAAAACqc/zmnDJnpUls8Y4wGmNT7RUlio674nGb6PwCLcBGAsYHQ/s349/thevastofnightsmoke.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="144" data-original-width="349" height="165" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x6hBsspmcZI/X-FOfgGYBGI/AAAAAAAACqc/zmnDJnpUls8Y4wGmNT7RUlio674nGb6PwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h165/thevastofnightsmoke.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>5. I'M YOUR WOMAN</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A1FjyIeK4n4/X-FO0tTfW5I/AAAAAAAACqo/1bOsG9z7w2Ed7N5JJtFofTPhFC9xhjQGwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2742/imyourwomansuburbandrive.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1147" data-original-width="2742" height="168" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A1FjyIeK4n4/X-FO0tTfW5I/AAAAAAAACqo/1bOsG9z7w2Ed7N5JJtFofTPhFC9xhjQGwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h168/imyourwomansuburbandrive.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>4. FIRST COW</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MiUuZgb6nCI/X-FPDuLBaVI/AAAAAAAACqs/cPqcOSBebNM5Zj6MjIkAQlJFwnYKR0f_gCLcBGAsYHQ/s494/First-Cow-2-copy-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="353" data-original-width="494" height="286" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MiUuZgb6nCI/X-FPDuLBaVI/AAAAAAAACqs/cPqcOSBebNM5Zj6MjIkAQlJFwnYKR0f_gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h286/First-Cow-2-copy-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>3. NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yCNiQGAV0vc/X-FPiu3pCmI/AAAAAAAACq8/QGrOyeo8tgUiNEqn_tEv62VmLVl41GfSwCLcBGAsYHQ/s289/neverrarelysometimesalwayssubway.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="174" data-original-width="289" height="241" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yCNiQGAV0vc/X-FPiu3pCmI/AAAAAAAACq8/QGrOyeo8tgUiNEqn_tEv62VmLVl41GfSwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h241/neverrarelysometimesalwayssubway.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>2. YELLOW ROSE</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Us4wyT9asHk/X-FP7UZ1_vI/AAAAAAAACrE/muLwax3x-NIC2SQdDHzj590JNnNMRJAsACLcBGAsYHQ/s600/yellow-rose-movie-dale-watson-600x315-cropped.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="600" height="210" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Us4wyT9asHk/X-FP7UZ1_vI/AAAAAAAACrE/muLwax3x-NIC2SQdDHzj590JNnNMRJAsACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h210/yellow-rose-movie-dale-watson-600x315-cropped.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>1. THE SMALL AXE QUINTET:<br />MANGROVE / LOVERS ROCK / RED, WHITE, AND BLUE /</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>ALEX WHEATLE / EDUCATION</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s2_6YgC-Fl8/X-FR-M4OHxI/AAAAAAAACrQ/zQOOdB2DEfgf7n6pSF4lDruVpjDr4lCSQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1000/Education.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s2_6YgC-Fl8/X-FR-M4OHxI/AAAAAAAACrQ/zQOOdB2DEfgf7n6pSF4lDruVpjDr4lCSQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/Education.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>"I just like to stay busy, and I like to work with interesting people."</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yje2Wft-76s/X-P96GYOP-I/AAAAAAAACrg/yOk84aA7lHY8VDRSHghYsHCj7IOBuYv_wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1750/adam-schlesinger-mug.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1122" data-original-width="1750" height="256" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yje2Wft-76s/X-P96GYOP-I/AAAAAAAACrg/yOk84aA7lHY8VDRSHghYsHCj7IOBuYv_wCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h256/adam-schlesinger-mug.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> - <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/09/adam-schlesinger-obituary">Adam Schlesinger</a>, October 31, 1967 – April 1, 2020</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So, as you and I enter into what is going to be a very different New Year, just...keep on doing That Thing You Do.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ajNTIklt8do" width="320" youtube-src-id="ajNTIklt8do"></iframe></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><p></p>Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-22233749935356036902020-03-27T13:34:00.000-07:002020-03-27T13:34:52.058-07:00The Three-Night-Five-Ratings-Points-Palm-Exploding-Heart Technique<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For as much as there have been thousands of words written in regard to the lifetime of hours that Quentin Tarantino has spent in a cinema seat, there should also be a significant amount of discussion about how many hours in his youth were spent with television, and his ability to distinguish and appreciate the details unique to that medium that would otherwise be in conflict with the theatrical experience. In multiple interviews, when discussing laudable moments of actors, he has frequently cited guest star roles on television on an equal level of praise as film appearances. His occasional forays into directing for TV, helming episodes of "E.R." and "C.S.I.," resulted in strong ratings and are cited as standouts of those series. And his recent blockbuster ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD spends more time addressing how it has been television rather than the movies that has made and could break Rick Dalton's career, as well as provide shaky foundation for the Manson acolytes' violent behavior. Most importantly, over-the-air television contributed to the budding cineaste's education long before VHS tapes and video stores were a viable option. In a 1992 interview with Michel Ciment & Hubert Niogret, he stated, "I just watched TV in my childhood all the time...during the weekend in Los Angeles, these old movies constantly played on TV all day long..."<br />
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Thus it's an irony that while his catalog has enjoyed plenty of cable and on-demand play, only one of Tarantino's feature films has ever been aired on free broadcast TV. Granted, the amount of language and violence contained within any of his stories would be a nightmare for the average editor trying to create an edition suitable for the FCC; when Miramax and Disney prepared such a cut in 1997 for a first-run barter syndication premiere, the Los Angeles Times' news story headline literally asked, "<a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-nov-18-ca-54894-story.html">PULP on TV?</a>" Their reedit eliminated most of the curse words, several lines of dialogue, and even eliminated The Gimp as a character, using strategic cropping of the 2.35 image to keep him offscreen. Not an optimum way to watch one of the most important films of a decade, to be sure. The whole situation likely was a love/hate moment for Tarantino - on one hand, appreciating seeing his own movie on TV the same way he consumed movies for years, but also having to see it severely altered the same way Jackie Gleason may have reacted to seeing himself confoundingly scream, "Scum bum," with someone else's voice in the 1979 NBC network premiere of SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT.<br />
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A year ago, a slow ripple of shock made its way through several fandoms when Netflix began airing an expanded edition of Tarantino's 70mm epic THE HATEFUL EIGHT, broken into 4 episodes of roughly 50 minutes each. <a href="https://www.slashfilm.com/hateful-eight-netflix-miniseries/">Talking to SlashFilm</a> after its stealth debut, he detailed how the platform approached him about this alternate idea, and why he accepted. "[I] thought, wow, that’s really intriguing. I mean, the movie exists as a movie, but if I were to use all the footage we shot, and see if I could put it together in episode form, I was game to give that a shot....We didn’t re-edit the whole thing from scratch, but we did a whole lot of re-editing, and it plays differently...It has a different feeling that I actually really like a lot. And there was [already] a literary aspect to the film anyway, so it definitely has this 'chapters unfolding' quality." He further elaborated, "Well if you like the movie, the movie is a movie, and I worked really hard [on it]. So even if I come out with a version that has more stuff in it, that doesn’t invalidate the first version...But now if you’ve seen that, and you like that, and you want more, this version gives you more…and it gives you more in a slightly different format...if you’re just watching it like a chapter at a [time], which is basically 50 minutes at a time, then you’re able to absorb it. And in a fun way, you’re able to look at it slightly differently. Do you want to keep watching it? You can, but you don’t have to. Each episode ends it an emotional place and you’re also able to see the whole original narrative complexity of the whole piece." Naturally, the question was raised if his other films would be revisited in a similar fashion, and while there were frequent musings that ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD could see an expanded episodic revision in the future, he stated that, "in the case of KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR, KILL BILL is the one movie I’ve made where everything I shot is in the movie..."<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tk99LHtosiI/XnbziECGN5I/AAAAAAAACko/hpeddxI_PXcaNCWUpjyglY_nXhWpH0L8QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/GodfatherSaga77scan0007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1128" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tk99LHtosiI/XnbziECGN5I/AAAAAAAACko/hpeddxI_PXcaNCWUpjyglY_nXhWpH0L8QCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/GodfatherSaga77scan0007.jpg" width="224" /></a>More than one critic observed the similarity between this reconfiguration, and the 1977 NBC presentation of THE GODFATHER SAGA. Seeking additional revenue to fund his expansive APOCALYPSE NOW, Francis Ford Coppola made a deal with Paramount and the network to create this hybrid blend of his two Academy Award-winning films, reedited in chronological order by editor Barry Malkin, and also including scenes that had been removed from each film. The four-night event was a ratings smash, and even drew rave reviews from those who had not cared for the theatrical editions: TV Guide's Judith Crist, who had panned THE GODFATHER in New York magazine saying, "The film is as ‘good’ as the novel; essentially immoral and therefore far more dangerous," said of the reconstructed miniseries, "[It's] a knockout...a brilliant editing job by Barry Malkin...he has come up with a gangster-oriented 'ROOTS'...the 'charms' of the Corleone family have been de-emphasized; we have instead a chronological study of the blood bond of the Mafia and, most particularly, of the father-to-son or don-to-heir transmission of character." The four-night event was a ratings smash, with NBC re-airing it in 1980, and holding onto the rights until 1987. Variations of this linear version were created for home video and other cable channels; more recently, AMC aired a slightly more violent edition in HD in 2012, and HBO offered a full-strength R-level edit for streaming in 2016. Generally all fans of Coppola's films, in direct rebuke to Crist, will always caution the first-timer to watch each GODFATHER film as its own separate film experience, but after that is done, many also enjoy the alternate miniseries option, and <a href="http://godfathermuseum.blogspot.com/2012_05_02_archive.html">Paramount's multiple solicitations</a> of such are testament to its enduring appeal.<br />
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KILL BILL has always held a special place to me in the Tarantino canon, because even though it has been described by its creator as a story that exists in a stylized "movie world" as opposed to the slightly more realish "Tarantinoverse," (to borrow from its originally intended male lead Warren Beatty, it is DICK TRACY versus BULWORTH) it's that stylization that speaks to me as a early film devotee. I can't really point to one single moment or screening from my childhood that pounded in the Golden Spike to make me a lifelong obsessive, but somewhere in 1976 the switch flipped and I started poring over Friday newspaper ads and drawing studio logos in my notebook. And as all this was developing in me...my parents had a very acrimonious divorce, an event that put a wedge between my mother and I that's never fully healed. Like, I call her every Sunday and check up on her and pray for her health, but as Nick Nolte softly growled in THE PRINCE OF TIDES, she's done a lot to piss me off, and I don't know when my parents began their war against each other - but I do know the only prisoners they took were their children. In those early months when my dad moved out of the house, and they were hashing out property divisions and visitation access, in some ways, I can understand how she would have identified with The Bride: feeling like her true love and all their friends had abandoned her and left her for dead, and her in turn making sure they would viscerally know her pain long after everyone else had ostensibly moved on. And yes, I know she loved me, in her own Conroy-esque hardness, and would have fought against anyone who tried to keep me from her. But I won't associate her with The Bride. For starters, she would not have appreciated the significance of falling asleep with SHOGUN ASSASSIN playing in the background. While she found my found my film addiction cute, she never took it seriously - she kept referring to it with the "H" word, and if you've ever heard someone use that word to describe the only thing that gives you elevation and a sense of purpose in the world, then you know why it's an epithet. More importantly, The Bride, even in her righteous fury, exercised an enormous amount of nuance in how she regarded her ostensible enemies list, and everyone else that was in the path; my mom was much more binary in her thinking. Basically, middle school was me devouring TV, teaching myself how movies work, and trying not to stir up more trouble between the folks so I could have some peace. And while I had a rollicking time watching KILL BILL as an adult, I would have downright plotzed if such a film existed in my tweens.<br />
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The rub is that if KILL BILL had existed in my tweens, I would have had no way to see it at the cinema. Definitely neither of my parents would have taken me: my mom can't even abide the word "damn" in her presence, and my father, who to his credit loved INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS and ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, wasn't a fan of "low" culture. Even with the rise of cable and videocassettes, it would have been too hard to sneak something like that past them. And I did not yet have any cool friends or relatives who could drive and were willing to take me to movies like it. So, yes, I would have to wait until some ridiculous edited version showed up on one of the Big 3 in prime time, or if I was lucky, on the local pre-Fox independent station where they often got uncut 16mm prints and sometimes ran them in the late night hours. Sure, it would have been sanitized and full of commercials and not the high-octane experience I deserved, but in light of my options then, I would have been satiated. I knew there'd be opportunity to see the "real" thing when I was older and on my own.<br />
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Thus, as an enthusiastic fan, an incurable collector of movies in multiple edits and formats, an empath to the less-digitally-advanced, and a hopeless nostalgic for the era before media overload where there was a thrill of catching movies on free analog television, with the broadcast to millions at once and the pageantry of the network intros, much like the alternate history proposed by ONCE UPON A TIME..., I have envisioned my own divergent timeline:<br />
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It's 2007. To shake up the February "Sweeps Week" programming, and in anticipation of the highly-touted GRINDHOUSE, NBC approaches Disney's now-brothersless Miramax, and expresses their interest in having the network television premiere of KILL BILL. In the retro spirit of the drive-in double feature that has yet to open in theatres, they're even going to revert to the old '70s "Big N" logo and their old "THE BIG EVENT" imprimatur to promote it. However, rather than simply air KILL BILL VOL. 1 one night and KILL BILL VOL. 2 a following night, they make the unusual proposal to present the unified story <i>over three nights</i> as a miniseries! Their argument is that VOL 2 is too long to air in one night anyway, this will allow them to sell more commercial time for this unique premiere, and besides, they're not going to completely yield the schedule over because there's no way they're giving up those sweet hour-long ratings that "DEAL OR NO DEAL" and "TO CATCH A PREDATOR" have been delivering. Bucking conventional wisdom, Tarantino and Disney agree to the proposition, and thus comes...<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The terrific art repurposed here is by <a href="http://www.joshuabudich.com/kill-bill">Joshua Budich</a>, see it in full color at his website!</span></div>
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In order to accommodate this three-evening structure, and agreeing in this fantasy that most but not all of the inherent carnage will be allowed to remain in the film and still be acceptable to run on the public airwaves opposite "7TH HEAVEN," "TWO AND A HALF MEN," and "DANCING WITH THE STARS," there will indeed be some radical rearrangement of the scenes. Indeed, the whole chaptering of the film will be different than any theatrical presentation.<br />
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I can already hear thousands of Hattori Hanzo swords being unsheathed at this point, ready to cut me down for speaking this kind of heretical idea in public. As your admittedly hubristic correspondent, I often anticipate, and indeed encourage you from time to time, and always in a respectful manner, to question my logic. If you're unconvinced that a particular opinion I've espoused is the wisest, tell me so, but allow me to convince you and I promise you right here and now, no subject will ever be taboo. Now, back to our program.<br />
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If you think very deeply about the emotional arc of the film, while there are five people on The Bride's kill list, there are three characters that are of the most paramount significance in her quest for bloody satisfaction. So, each evening's installment allows those three confrontations to be their respective climax. Remember the quote regarding the segmenting of THE HATEFUL EIGHT: <b>"a slightly different format...a chapter at a [time]...look at it slightly differently...Each episode ends it an emotional place." </b><br />
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This was something already understood in the theatrical releases. We see The Bride fight Vernita Green first even though she is second on the kill list. Why? Because the O-Ren fight is a larger battle in all senses, there's no way to top it, so Volume 1 has to end shortly after it's done. But it's going to be a while to get to that point, so in order for the captive cinema audience to not be left like Milhouse van Houten waiting for Itchy & Scratchy to get to the explosives factory, you get to see The Bride in action early in another nicely-staged fight, and once that's done, now you're ready to learn how she came back from a bullet in the prologue. It's like Ed Sullivan in 1964 knowing that the teens in his studio are chomping at the bit to see The Beatles, so it's better to let them go up front and then promise they'll come back later than make them wait through Topo Gigio and get restless. A TV miniseries, conversely, can be a little more deliberate with allocating story elements. "TWIN PEAKS" opens with Laura Palmer found dead, the viewer is willing to start meeting all the suspects because they know something important's going to happen later.<br />
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So, here is how the story would play out under the auspices of the Sheinhardt Wig Company:<br />
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<b>Night 1: ROAR</b></div>
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The episode opens as V1 does, with its ShawScope and Astro Dater teases, the black-and-white prologue of The Bride in her "final" moments as Bill sends her off with a gunshot, and the mournful "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" credit sequence. However, after that, the broadcast goes directly into "The Blood-Spattered Bride," which now becomes Chapter One, and everything from there unfolds as it did in the V1 theatrical edition, albeit with each subsequent chapter within ("The O-Rigin of O-Ren," "The MAN from OKINAWA," and "Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves") being bumped up a digit. The teases of V2 from the end of V1, which were not included in THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR, are retained, but Bill's cliffhanger final line is not uttered at the end of the episode, to help further the surprises to come later on.<br />
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In this incarnation, the initial two-hour installment becomes even more focused on The Bride's recovery, and her appointment with O-Ren Ishii. Even though it would ostensibly be easier to find and kill Vernita and Budd first, since they don't command a literal army like O-Ren does, The Bride has chosen this path precisely because if she can take out a now world-famous criminal warlord, it's mostly downhill from there. It'll put a little more fear into the rest of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. And most importantly, besides Bill, O-Ren is the squad member that she loved most. It is why she is given an entire chapter for her backstory - O-Ren's rise from trauma to a level of untouchability to rival Bill himself is something The Bride respects. It is also why, after having the kind of friendship where they finished each others sentences, it hurts the hardest that she willingly agreed to betray her. By decimating all of her lackeys, to the point where they must fight one to one, O-Ren will now have to respect what damage she did to her former friend. And by killing someone she still carries fondness for, The Bride will be better prepared for her confrontation with Bill.<br />
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<b>Night 2: RAMPAGE</b></div>
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The episode opens with a reprise of The Bride's trunkside warning to Sofie Fatale, then after fading to black on "They'll all be as dead as O-Ren," goes straight into "2," the chapter which previously opened V1 but has now been moved here to start this evening's installment, making it Chapter Five. That is followed by the "We deserve to die" conversation between Bill and Budd, and the remainder unfolds as it did in the V2 theatrical edition, up to the finish of the "Elle and I" chapter, upon which the episode ends.<br />
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By delaying the prologue and chapter which would otherwise open the theatrical version of V2, this installment is all about delivering retribution to the remaining members of the Squad, but most importantly to Elle. If O-Ren was The Bride's best friend, Elle is her worst enemy and emotional antithesis. Besides her general misanthropy, Elle particularly fumes over the fact that she is always in the shadow of The Bride, as a fellow student of Pai Mei, as the rebound girl for Bill's affections. The only reason she even utters a single sentence of respect for The Bride, saying that she deserved better than Budd getting a lucky ambush on her, is because she knows the only witness to that statement will soon be dead. Elle knows that no matter how skilled and fearsome she is, she will always be compared to The Bride, and The Bride knows Elle's been starving for her head before she showed up at the church. Vernita and Budd certainly put up a significant challenge, but Elle as the anti-Bride is the climax to this group vendetta, and closing the night's broadcast on the finish to their feud is a clean breaking point to stop and breathe before the final showdown.<br />
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<b>Night 3: REVENGE</b></div>
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The episode opens with The Bride's driver's seat address which previously opened V2, followed by the chapter "Massacre at Two Pines," and then going into the final chapter "Face to Face." Again, when watching in a theatrical setting, the Massacre is put at the front of V2 so that it is always in the back of your mind as the Vipers are dispatched and the march to meeting Bill advances, but in a TV setting, reshuffling to put the final episode entirely on the fall and finish of The Bride and Bill's relationship fulfills the same concept as the HATEFUL EIGHT Netflix edition, to look at the story slightly differently and put it in its own emotional space. And in these final two hours, concentrating all their history together and estranged, when all the secrets Bill and The Bride hid from each other come out on the table, it's a conclusion that, while perhaps forgone at the start, the TV audience would still excitedly anticipate the way they did Meggie Cleary and Father Ralph hooking up in "THE THORN BIRDS," which, oddly enough had its ABC network premiere on Tarantino's birthday, March 27, 1983.<br />
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Which is as good a time as any to break for some commercials from that broadcast date. Even fight master Pai Mei himself would agree with Sheer Elegance's proposition that nothing beats a great pair of legs.</div>
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No, if this alternate 2007 had happened, it would not be any proper way to discover KILL BILL for the first time viewer. It would have at best been an interesting experiment like THE GODFATHER SAGA or THE HATEFUL EIGHT series, or at worst a mutation excoriated by fans yet still coveted by tape traders and torrentors alongside <a href="http://www.videojunkie.org/2012/08/on-celluloid-chopping-block-earthquake.html">NBC's two-night stretch re-edit of EARTHQUAKE</a> in 1976.</div>
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But that's the thing with artists of any discipline - it's not enough to behold the perfectly assembled watch, there's always the desire to look at its parts and attempt to assemble it another way...<br />
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So happy birthday to Mr. Tarantino, one of the best watchmakers in the business.<br />
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And here's to any sheltered child today who doesn't have cool parents and/or easy access to cinemas or streaming or DVDs, that is still fending for themselves with what constitutes "free" TV: may they find something that, even in a family-friendly edit, blows their mind and spurs their own creative fancy.</div>
Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-37079203916246466872019-12-25T02:14:00.000-08:002019-12-25T02:14:18.373-08:00Pass Me the Product Nineteen<br />
After four years of ass-kicking, 2019 somehow finally served the impression things were improving. Or maybe that was a delusion brought on by all the buffeting; The New Cruelty is ongoing, to be sure. But it felt better all the same, and you gotta get your serotonin where ya can.<br />
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I hit 50 this year. It's still a little weird to reckon with. In fifth grade, 50 was old to me. And seeing that I'm still devouring the art and culture that I relished in fifth grade, it's hard not to sometimes wonder if I'm not really just a child on stilts and a long coat. Also considering that there's another deadass generation gap that's causing multiple stresses among the people, I feel a constantly increasing kinship with that forgotten Prince <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057091/reference">Don Fabrizio Cabrera</a> in believing that I belong to an unlucky generation, astride between two worlds and ill-at-ease in both.<br />
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"That's why God made the movies..."<br />
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The highest honor I received this year, frankly the highest in many years, was a most unique form of cinematic immortality. After years of evolving from exuberant fan to thoughtful chronicler to trusted correspondent for his treasured cinema, my trajectory with Quentin Tarantino brought me (or, specifically, my Persian housewife hands) to a small but significant amount of screen time in his magnum opus ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, appropriately brandishing a reel of film and threading it into a projector, placing me in the august company of <a href="https://youtu.be/duvAY0HFdn4">Jack Webb wielding a hammer</a> or Dario Argento garrotting a dayplayer. I'd just as soon not go into the specifics of how my lovely knuckles made it into one of the most hotly debated films of the year in this forum. Maybe if you see me in person and buy me a boilermaker, I'll tell the tale.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Big thanks to Joon Kim for the screengrabs!</span></div>
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Naturally, since I had a literal hand in this epic production, I must respectfully render it ineligible for my list. I can, however, give it my Jury Prize, and proclaim without prejudice that in a similar manner which his Sundance '92 friend and colleague Allison Anders explored in GRACE OF MY HEART, it's a swarming swooning speculative fiction about artists in a time and place that may well have only existed in the minds of people moved by the movies, along with romantic fools like me. As I documented for the New Beverly, <a href="http://thenewbev.com/blog/2019/09/once-upon-a-fateful-8/">I could see the joists and the plumbing erected</a> before the house opened to the public, and I am pleased that so many have come to visit it. But yeah, having bragging rights to a few flash frames therein feels great too.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OI5hgIe2RHg/XgKg1O6DBJI/AAAAAAAACjI/4Lui1Sjji3YDBC4ZlpjHBKMOoMH2Qf7EACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/serenity2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OI5hgIe2RHg/XgKg1O6DBJI/AAAAAAAACjI/4Lui1Sjji3YDBC4ZlpjHBKMOoMH2Qf7EACLcBGAsYHQ/s200/serenity2019.jpg" width="135" /></a>And I meanwhile happily award a Runaway Jury Prize to Steven Knight's questionable but unforgettable mystery SERENITY. The less said about its daffy surprises, the better, but I'll sum up that if <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/homestarrunnerdotcom">Strong Bad</a> decided to follow up the <a href="https://youtu.be/lwgqSMbFE3o">Dangeresque</a> series by writing an erotic thriller, it would be an awful lot like SERENITY.<br />
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(typing) "Get ye fish."</div>
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(typing) "No, for real, print me out a million dollar bill, man. Dot exe."</div>
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And then here will be some sort of convoluted wordplay or pun which introduces you to The Top 13 of 2019:</div>
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<b>13. CRAWL</b></center>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P0500DWGYCI/XgH4Ss1EHLI/AAAAAAAACg4/T4ee2faji6YhwTFZQRbi322-1UMM1kS1ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Crawl-bathroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="1024" height="167" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P0500DWGYCI/XgH4Ss1EHLI/AAAAAAAACg4/T4ee2faji6YhwTFZQRbi322-1UMM1kS1ACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Crawl-bathroom.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b> 12. US</b></center>
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<b>11. BOOKSMART</b></center>
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<b>10. THE NIGHTINGALE</b></center>
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<b>9. DOLEMITE IS MY NAME</b></center>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W4waWW39OFE/XgH5UvBguII/AAAAAAAAChY/WZBI82Rlu5QuYCmFmdktfE0JlrcqeXezACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/dolemiteismynamejonespitch.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W4waWW39OFE/XgH5UvBguII/AAAAAAAAChY/WZBI82Rlu5QuYCmFmdktfE0JlrcqeXezACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/dolemiteismynamejonespitch.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>8. UNCUT GEMS</b></center>
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<b>7. THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO</b></center>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QwsqNWXRoac/XgH5rVZ9rII/AAAAAAAAChk/War2NfQwYeoSmQjEiSDvCbzdIhVD5SWzwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/last-black-man-in-sf-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="1170" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QwsqNWXRoac/XgH5rVZ9rII/AAAAAAAAChk/War2NfQwYeoSmQjEiSDvCbzdIhVD5SWzwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/last-black-man-in-sf-8.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b> 6. THE IRISHMAN</b></center>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9kXEgoUNlEw/XgH5zhcLMdI/AAAAAAAAChs/vcTPt3uWcOQig9vVDjlz8O2qN3IzVbD7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/irishmancoda.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="543" data-original-width="1000" height="216" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9kXEgoUNlEw/XgH5zhcLMdI/AAAAAAAAChs/vcTPt3uWcOQig9vVDjlz8O2qN3IzVbD7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/irishmancoda.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b> 5. HUSTLERS</b></center>
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<b>4. PAIN AND GLORY</b></center>
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<b>3. PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE</b></center>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K8aEvroR084/XgH6RC-gYPI/AAAAAAAACiE/W1AVL02fIIsPJDRCSfSPwSvo2E5hn1m1wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/portraitofaladyonfirepipe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K8aEvroR084/XgH6RC-gYPI/AAAAAAAACiE/W1AVL02fIIsPJDRCSfSPwSvo2E5hn1m1wCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/portraitofaladyonfirepipe.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>2. PARASITE</b></center>
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<b>1. FAST COLOR</b></center>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>“Curation, at its best, is not just how you like something, which is the most dangerous place to go, but what the music means to the band, what it means to the fans, and whether it should be part of how someone first connects [with the artist]."</b></span></div>
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-- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/obituaries/gary-stewart-dead.html">Gary Stewart</a>, February 10, 1957 – April 11, 2019</div>
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Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-75754814281318842922019-09-10T20:20:00.001-07:002019-09-10T20:20:10.483-07:00The New Normal of NEXT LEVELRoughly nine years ago, I stumbled across a great glorious cinematic What-in-the-Sam-Hill called <a href="https://projectorhasbeendrinking.blogspot.com/2010/07/fallin-on-floor-for-standing-ovation.html">STANDING OVATION</a>, which I described as the tweener intersection of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL and "JERSEY SHORE." I happily say that I have a fondness for films aimed at the grade school set, decades after they stopped being relevant to my existence, because more often than not I can imagine how li'l Mark (before he started spelling his name with a "c" instead of a "k" just to be difficult) would have reacted to them. Look, many of you have probably revisited the movies of your childhood and determined that they don't really hold up, but more often than not they still make you smile because you're remembering the wide-eyed hope of that earlier time. All I'm doing different is viewing such modern-day trifles through a theoretical fog of memory instead of an actual one.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nt_Kc8ptNx4/XXhmow69tpI/AAAAAAAACeY/cu7aq5KULFsTlQJwu_SvbkszlrjbjmI4wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/NextLevelonesheet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nt_Kc8ptNx4/XXhmow69tpI/AAAAAAAACeY/cu7aq5KULFsTlQJwu_SvbkszlrjbjmI4wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/NextLevelonesheet.jpg" width="213" /></a>So when I started seeing the advertising for another Pre-Adolescent Performing Arts Saga called <a href="http://nextlevel.assemble.me/">NEXT LEVEL</a>, naturally I was intrigued, being that ever since that previous jolt of kooky endorphins, I've been chasing that cotton-candy dragon for years since. I made the drive to attend one of the few theatrical playdates the movie has been granted - apparently the release is so small a theatre count or opening weekend gross could not be obtained from Box Office Mojo - and sure enough, I was the only person at my screening. For all I know, I may have been the only person in attendance for the whole day's worth of shows. To my mild disappointment, I was not treated to the same delirious array of plot turns and aesthetic decisions that made STANDING OVATION one-of-a-kind. Those looking for the next OOGIELOVES or THE IDENTICAL are thus duly warned. But, to my warm-hearted pleasure, I found just enough grace notes at play that I felt it worth expending space at this moribund blog to discuss them.<br />
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My close friend and esteemed colleague William Bibbiani, who was one of the few people to also take the time to meet this movie halfway and write a review for it, served up <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/next-level-film-review-youtube-musical/">a thumbs-down pan for The Wrap</a> that was nonetheless fair-minded, friendly, and respectful. His largest issue with the movie appears to be its lack of plausibility and stakes-worthy conflict, stating that, "the film’s production values [undermine] the story at every turn." <a href="https://www.podcastone.com/episode/Critically-Acclaimed-93-Every-Stephen-King-Movie-from-Carrie-to-It-Chapter-Two">On his Critically Acclaimed podcast</a> with Witney Seibold, he further addressed that though it would be churlish to take issue with teenagers of limited acting experience and range performing as such, the experience of watching the film felt akin to being the parent of one of the kids who feels compelled to stay and watch the proceedings even though rooting interest dissipated shortly after their particular fave already did their number. Which is pretty much how my own father felt when he came to watch the big show at the performing arts camps he sent me to for my middle school years, not to mention how my friends felt about coming to see me during my open-mic stand-up years. (Plot twist: they didn't, and I wound up performing to the empty room that resulted after the audience members who came to see <i>their</i> friends split when their five minutes was up. But I digress) Much like me, he was hoping for a different kind of "camp" movie.<br /><br />Bibbs has cogently assessed why he does not recommend it. I am not here about simply gainsaying his points, suffice to say that, in keeping with the principle coined by programmer Jesse Hawthorne Ficks as "neo-sincerity," what took him out of the movie never troubled me. Low production value? Sending me to Days of Creation cost my dad plenty, and their facilities were definitely not <a href="https://youtu.be/8-UdwBkXJBI">Camp Mohawk</a> posh. The songs and choreography are so-so? Would it be better if <a href="http://thenewbev.com/blog/2019/04/smile-everybodys-a-star/">Tommy French from SMILE</a> were to have been in charge and turned a nice bunch of high school kids into Vegas showgirls? And, dude, it's not that Cindy turned on the house lights during Kelly's number, it's that her jerk move cut the power to her backing music and threw off the act. Didn't you ever have to solve the mystery of "The music stopped, and the lady died" when you were in middle school? But hey, consistency is a hobgoblin of small minds. And speaking of <a href="https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/hobgoblins">HOBGOBLINS</a>...naah, we'll table that movie for now. The point is, he's already lain out what doesn't work. I've come to say here's what <i>does</i> work, DO MORE OF THAT!<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1g3I-U-0188/XXg-LZe03jI/AAAAAAAACeA/CU9rjQFXR1k7Ibz2qKvHMWzG27n7Y1QEACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/NextLevelst10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1g3I-U-0188/XXg-LZe03jI/AAAAAAAACeA/CU9rjQFXR1k7Ibz2qKvHMWzG27n7Y1QEACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/NextLevelst10.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The element that director Alyssa Goodman and screenwriter Byron Kavanagh bring to NEXT LEVEL which I believe help transcend it's outwardly ragged issues is how it quietly upends and thwarts the gender tropes that would normally be de rigeur in a PAPAS (yes, I am going to make that acronym happen). Press materials have openly name-checked MEAN GIRLS as an influence, though what I kept thinking of as I was watching was Jessica Bendinger's underappreciated directorial debut STICK IT, in how the ongoing theme is that shoehorning a young woman's desire to hone a talent into a winner-take-all environment will either curdle their personality or drain all joy from that pursuit, or both. Modern movies like to talk a good game of girl power and cooperation, but it's rare you see something where the lead is doing her damnedest to <b>not</b> be an Alpha in her group...and succeeds. It also keenly addresses that even if you outwardly eschew competition, it's often still ingrained in your thoughts. A particularly striking moment is when, after a boys versus girls dodgeball game, Kelly, the maverick who doesn't care about winning, initially resents that Hayden, the boy who likes her, effectively let her win; she considers it condescending that he didn't bring his A game. But Hayden points out that yeah, he could have flung the ball hard and beaned her, but then she'd be in pain and probably not in the mood to spend more time with him, and she agrees. Later, when Cindy pulls a boilerplate make-the-girl-jealous-with a hug scam, Hayden describes what happened and Kelly recognizes that Cindy's obsessed with manipulating people and bam, it's resolved. The contrivances of most teen stories are cut short here. It's refreshing that all the boys in this movie for once are not presented as antagonists or chaos agents, but just benign diversions. When they first appear, disrupting an initial rehearsal, they flat out say they heard the song and dance happening and liked it and wanted to watch, and after some chiding, are allowed to. When they acquiesce to their makeover bet payoff with the girls, none of them seem embarrassed or even that anxious to get it off, much to the chagrin of their female coach. Heck, the d.j.'s at the closing night celebration are girls. And the fact that at the end it is suggested that hey, why not allow boys in this arts camp as well, frankly I laughed heartily at that because after decades of having to sit through dozens of movies where "girls can do this too" is the moral, turnabout is fair play and overdue.<br />
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Another element that may seem incredulous to some but felt effective to me is the virtual lack of adult supervision in this story. Aside from the hapless camp director, there are no other adult males ever seen. And beyond some early comic relief with Cindy's enabling mother, a disheartening audio exchange between Becky and her pushy stage mom, and the one moment with the boys' basketball camp coach, no adult women either, Even the ostensible visiting mentor Jasmine Joel is herself just reaching college age, though she does have some lessons to impart. Thus, we are spared any kind of tired "the grown-ups have the answers" lecturing; the girls in effect are recognizing and solving their own problems. As <a href="http://thenewbev.com/blog/2019/09/fast-times-at-ridgemont-high/">FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH</a> director Amy Heckerling once observed, "I hate parents. Parents open a whole box of stuff I [don’t] want to get into. I just [want] to say ‘Here’s the world of kids in their own universe.'" And in a film that is almost exclusively going to be viewed by the Tiger Beat set, agency and self-determination are good skills to depict.<br />
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I'll further throw in to say that I enjoyed how while there is a declared prize to be won within the story, it is deliberately undercut to the point of becoming an anticlimax. There's a nice resolution between Cindy and Kelly that dovetails to the earlier exchange between Kelly and Hayden, where the girls debate whether, if they had not been at loggerheads, the award win would have been different, and then decide it would have been the same because their essential temperaments for achievement have always been different, and there's more contentment from having good company. Even in an uplifting kids movie, one is risking massive mockery to go for a "the real prize was the friends we made along the way" ending. Seeing as how Kelly, in an earlier gloomy moment, assumes that her botched performance will shortly become a meme, and in real life all these eager young performers already have an internet presence, everyone involved in this film are aware that the snark brigade is always waiting. So woot to them for believing that sometimes if you leave girls to their own devices, they won't go LORD OF THE FLIES on each other; for the viewers about to start high school, that's reassuring. And for some of us arrested adolescents as well.<br />
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While NEXT LEVEL is not a strong enough movie to hold much interest for anyone who isn't a teenage girl or their sitter for the night, if you do find yourself watching it in such circumstance...your roommate absconded with your copy of the original HAIRSPRAY, and CAMP with Anna Kendrick got pulled from streaming, and you don't think your young charge is ready for Coco's breakdown in FAME, you will see a world where girls are valued, boys aren't toxic, and in a time of your life where it feels like Everything is Everything, it's possible to lower the stakes and find calm. Bibbs is right in that I won't likely remember any of the song or dance numbers that were supposed to be the big draw. But I will remember that I had a good time, and that's worth something too.<br />
<br />
(P.S.: Thank you for the post-credit blooper reel. Since most indie movies don't get physical media releases anymore, I sometimes worry that little bonuses like this may fall by the wayside. Why should Marvel fans get all the cookies?)Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-57139118453074092062018-12-25T02:27:00.002-08:002018-12-25T02:27:40.670-08:00One May Make It as Long as One is Full from What One Eight<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L_gBTgZ9ejA/XCCI5GxtSeI/AAAAAAAACZ4/wpAO98xVDgAxc5XIbP2x9v6QrYRVzgheACLcBGAs/s1600/atleastyoutried.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="500" height="237" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L_gBTgZ9ejA/XCCI5GxtSeI/AAAAAAAACZ4/wpAO98xVDgAxc5XIbP2x9v6QrYRVzgheACLcBGAs/s320/atleastyoutried.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
2015 kicked my ass. 2016 kicked <b>everybody's</b> ass. 2017 discovered our collective asses were numb from all the kicking, so a series of sucker punches, rope burns, paper cuts, and other attacks ensued. 2018 continued the the war. Like advertising copy from the trailer of a Russ Meyer classic, it was a haymaking, belly-busting, karate-chopping, judo-flipping, fight to end them all! Slashing, tackling, gouging, hacking, flipping, belting, smashing, and blasting! Muscle to muscle, bone to bone! The prize: Life itself.<br />
<br />
And for now, the prize is retained.<br />
<br />
Oh, speaking of prizes, while this year reached an all-time personal low in theatrical viewings overall, I am gratified that at the very least, I can bring back the auxilary awards that have been long dormant during The (Continuing) New Cruelty.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-41X2glhH2Rg/XCCTAg58BdI/AAAAAAAACaE/qVpbfkLfOss6zP3suhKO9wRhuY5l1mtFwCLcBGAs/s1600/Hervesalute.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-41X2glhH2Rg/XCCTAg58BdI/AAAAAAAACaE/qVpbfkLfOss6zP3suhKO9wRhuY5l1mtFwCLcBGAs/s320/Hervesalute.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
When I was associated with a certain flagship theatre of a well-respected national chain of art cinemas, I was lucky enough to befriend the energetic writer/director Sacha Gervasi, who had brought his enormously moving and still-vital documentary ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL! to my workplace. In the decade since that first meeting, I have had the pleasure of keeping company with him on multiple occasions. How many to be precise? Modesty forbids. And during that decade, I was frequently regaled with the wild and illuminating story of how, as a young journalist, he found himself an active participant in the final days of counterculture artist turned cult actor Herve Villechaize, and his longstanding desire to turn it into a film despite its less-than-commercial prospects. This year, he made it happen, and I am happy to give it a reinvigorated Jury Prize. MY DINNER WITH HERVE, much like a previous Jury Prize winner of mine <a href="https://projectorhasbeendrinking.blogspot.com/2015/12/one-five-and-alive.html">INCOMPRESA</a>, meshes fact and fiction to deliver an emotional truth about a real person whose legend has too often superseded his reality. It's kind, empathetic, mordantly funny, and proof that if you have a seemingly untenable dream, like a biopic about the world's most famous dwarf (or of being a successful heavy metal artist in your '50s), there can be a reward to spending the time and toil to make it a reality.<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0cEjxMOHvn0/XCCbsNEVuvI/AAAAAAAACaQ/1bV6V8AJJnYT7jULFyIc1gUxIgIpuq9NQCLcBGAs/s1600/surferposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0cEjxMOHvn0/XCCbsNEVuvI/AAAAAAAACaQ/1bV6V8AJJnYT7jULFyIc1gUxIgIpuq9NQCLcBGAs/s320/surferposter.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
And after spending the last few years bereft of witnessing a truly singular, guileless, and completely daft theatrical experience, it is with enormous pleasure that I can revive my "Runaway Jury" Prize for Douglas Burke's SURFER: TEEN CONFRONTS FEAR. Very few people would think that accumulated home videos of surfing travels, new age Christian spiritualism, after-hours access to an acting school, a dead beached whale, and a reluctant child actor could be woven into a feature film, but first-time director Burke, moonlighting from his day job as a physics professor, grabbed a GoPro and an editing program and decided why not. I sit through plenty of respectable films that have that scene you know is the Oscar Speech, so when I behold Burke going nonstop for 10 minutes on Biblical parables and water creatures without taking a breath, I have to salute that level of commitment. The fine genre screenwriter <a href="https://www.talkhouse.com/took-break-building-toothpick-diorama-go-see-weirdest-movie-year/">Simon Barrett had this succinct observation</a>: "I have mixed feelings about SURFER. On one hand, it is a fine film about surfing and receiving poetic life advice from the ghost of a semi-comatose covert assassin who has been temporarily resurrected as squid meat. On the other, it has no talking cat in it." Look, sometimes you get to drink 30 year-aged Scotch from a posh reserve, sometimes you grab a cold beer from the pony keg. But every so often a Freddie Quell comes into your life and mixes you a concoction that is some unholy mix of lighter fluid, clam juice, and Shasta, and it's the most memorable drink you've had in years. And a cinematic life without that kind of jolt, well that's living in an iron maiden of pain,boy!<br />
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Meanwhile, I will also take a moment to acknowledge the good work of an organization that I otherwise have many many many problems with: Netflix. I still view them as the perpetual spoiled rich kid with a short attention span who continually decides they want something, eliminates every obstacle in their path to get it, and then decides they don't want it anymore. And yes, they have made it possible for passion projects that studios refused to find a supportive home...for a little while, anyhow. But for every THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND or SHIRKERS that is given a boost, there are literally dozens of other original films that, if they don't immediately start trending on Twitter, get buried in the algorithm and forgotten, without any sort of alternate availability such as physical media or theatrical repertory, with only the vague memory or google-fu skills of hardened film fans to actually use that search window to see if it's still on the site. So, for those of you who missed them on the first go, I offer this:<br />
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<b>Five Worthwhile Films on Netflix Nobody Saw But Me:</b></div>
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The American Meme</div>
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Cam</div>
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Dude</div>
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Jewel's Catch One</div>
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Roxanne Roxanne<br />
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</div>
And finally, as I stated earlier, theatregoing became an even bigger casualty in this year of eating lunch from the Dollar General and kissing pennies from the ridiculous because the sensible aren't hiring. I missed A LOT of important movies this season, so if you don't see your fave rave here, it's probably not because I'm being some sort of ornery contrarian. I mean, I am an ornery contrarian in regular practice, but let's use that blame when it's deserved. At this point, I now have so many asterisks to my lists, they look like censored cursing in a comic strip. But when I did make it into a cinema, these were the moments that carried me through the nights I had to focus on so-called real-world matters. Bearing no influence from Cambridge Analytica, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, or Sal Hepatica, The Top 13 of 2018*:<br />
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<b>13. MANDY</b></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GqE2XjG1hf4/XB7GAd2FtCI/AAAAAAAACYI/gKPRdZ4cDjkA7MkGclp0zXKHvadRrkDEwCLcBGAs/s1600/Mandy-still3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="269" data-original-width="637" height="168" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GqE2XjG1hf4/XB7GAd2FtCI/AAAAAAAACYI/gKPRdZ4cDjkA7MkGclp0zXKHvadRrkDEwCLcBGAs/s400/Mandy-still3.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>12. THE DEATH OF STALIN</b></div>
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<b>11. EIGHTH GRADE</b></div>
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<b>10. COLD WAR</b></div>
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<b>9. TULLY</b></div>
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<b>8. THE HATE U GIVE</b></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z3AENZG20jE/XB7HQEyYZQI/AAAAAAAACYw/wUrPn9EnqJgbexUqH3s_pvua44PQETBGgCLcBGAs/s1600/hateugive2-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="636" data-original-width="1577" height="161" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z3AENZG20jE/XB7HQEyYZQI/AAAAAAAACYw/wUrPn9EnqJgbexUqH3s_pvua44PQETBGgCLcBGAs/s400/hateugive2-10.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>7. WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR</b></div>
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<b>6. ANNIHILATION</b></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dOhje_pq3ws/XB7HjhF5kTI/AAAAAAAACZA/4Pd9HJhwxwYL_V5EMCZAxd0AjNMNy5CdgCLcBGAs/s1600/Annihilation-Jennifer-Jason-Leigh-Natalie-Portman-Tessa-Thompson-Gina-Rodriguez-Alex-Garland-2-1200x537.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="1200" height="178" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dOhje_pq3ws/XB7HjhF5kTI/AAAAAAAACZA/4Pd9HJhwxwYL_V5EMCZAxd0AjNMNy5CdgCLcBGAs/s400/Annihilation-Jennifer-Jason-Leigh-Natalie-Portman-Tessa-Thompson-Gina-Rodriguez-Alex-Garland-2-1200x537.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>5. YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE</b></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oNJICpYHBpQ/XB7H4ScaMBI/AAAAAAAACZM/BLXILdQeq1kvzH5VrYlElasWm9IkKZdpwCLcBGAs/s1600/You%2BWere%2BNever%2BReally%2BHere.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="597" data-original-width="1431" height="166" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oNJICpYHBpQ/XB7H4ScaMBI/AAAAAAAACZM/BLXILdQeq1kvzH5VrYlElasWm9IkKZdpwCLcBGAs/s400/You%2BWere%2BNever%2BReally%2BHere.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>4. ROMA</b></div>
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<b>3. LEAVE NO TRACE</b></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LJ9gKOZ9-GM/XB7IzL6Wp-I/AAAAAAAACZc/rlafPeul_HkMwFd52MikUZcKNshfFgJngCLcBGAs/s1600/leavenotrace.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LJ9gKOZ9-GM/XB7IzL6Wp-I/AAAAAAAACZc/rlafPeul_HkMwFd52MikUZcKNshfFgJngCLcBGAs/s400/leavenotrace.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>2. MADELINE'S MADELINE</b></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4WHp_kQ_iqQ/XB7JCqTFUJI/AAAAAAAACZg/Sh17V5rBFC0xEAHVOJgq6FKudtTPnA4awCLcBGAs/s1600/madelines-madeline-body2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="580" height="216" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4WHp_kQ_iqQ/XB7JCqTFUJI/AAAAAAAACZg/Sh17V5rBFC0xEAHVOJgq6FKudtTPnA4awCLcBGAs/s400/madelines-madeline-body2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>1. SORRY TO BOTHER YOU</b></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z9xzbnPMUpM/XB7JKJVhYfI/AAAAAAAACZo/rdSXZWzQrJIgi9rHyFnyudqwO5vAGnLpACLcBGAs/s1600/sorrytobother.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="1280" height="167" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z9xzbnPMUpM/XB7JKJVhYfI/AAAAAAAACZo/rdSXZWzQrJIgi9rHyFnyudqwO5vAGnLpACLcBGAs/s400/sorrytobother.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">"We need a witness to our lives… [someone] saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness.'"</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo Credit:Walt Disney Studios, via Alamy</span><br /><br /> -- <a href="https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2018/10/hate-u-give-screenwriter-audrey-wells-dies">Audrey Wells</a>, January 25, 1960 - October 4, 2018</div>
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Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-5974147981989960032018-07-10T16:11:00.001-07:002018-07-10T16:11:34.603-07:00Fernand Raynaud and His Role in Amusing Myself<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CORgRJ7Bvb0/WyodlP9Ti9I/AAAAAAAACRc/BkDHziv96MoGncn2IQC77VrS2HU-2p94gCLcBGAs/s1600/OkehLaughingAd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1293" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CORgRJ7Bvb0/WyodlP9Ti9I/AAAAAAAACRc/BkDHziv96MoGncn2IQC77VrS2HU-2p94gCLcBGAs/s200/OkehLaughingAd.jpg" width="161" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Your
first favorite comedy recording is one of the milestones of your
childhood; it may not fully define the expanse or range of what you
find funny as you grow older, but it presents the root elements that
made you laugh all those years ago, and probably still hooks you
today when you search for a moment’s distraction.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
spent the first few years of my life in a melange of languages. My
mother, newly transplanted to America from years in Naples, Italy,
switched between French and Italian on alternate days, believing it
would help continue communication between myself and her non-English
speaking parents, who had also moved stateside to be closer to me. My
father just kept speaking English. I have no memory of what
transpired, but according to him, after a stretch of this, I stopped
speaking completely for almost six months, and then just as abruptly,
started up again. Therapists they took me to then could not agree on
whether being immersed in multiple tongues was helping me or
confusing me – <span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-05-08/russian-speaking-new-yorker-would-rather-her-daughter-learn-chinese">a
debate which continues today</a></u></span></span> – so once I
inexplicably ended the vocal standoff, the decision was made to pare
down to just French and English at home. So while I had previously
(and adorably) been able to muscle up to a barista on a cruise liner
and say, “Uno cappucino, <i>subito</i><span style="font-style: normal;">!”
before the age of four, what Italian I learned faded away, my French
stayed conversational though I would never fully master writing it or
nail that eternal aigue versus grave divide, and I learned to speak
the flat unaffected English of any other child growing up in
Cincinnati, Ohio.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1JYVyprO8fg/WyoeLlMIAKI/AAAAAAAACRk/0X4qMlCmmt4N9Ml2-5wiKyzZ-6-EkbaSgCLcBGAs/s1600/fernand-raynaud-45-bourreau.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="462" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1JYVyprO8fg/WyoeLlMIAKI/AAAAAAAACRk/0X4qMlCmmt4N9Ml2-5wiKyzZ-6-EkbaSgCLcBGAs/s200/fernand-raynaud-45-bourreau.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Nonetheless,
my first comedy memory was impacted by that multilingual setting. My
mother had brought with her a collection of comedy 45s by a French
comedian named Fernand Raynaud. And one in particular I somehow
gravitated to, playing it as constantly as most growing kids played
their Disney storybook record, and ultimately memorizing the sketch.
Well, technically, memorizing it as onomatopoeiatically possible,
since between skips in the record and the high speed slang of the
delivery, I never fully understood all the actual words being said.
But my determination to recite it at the drop of a hat definitely
made for some initial amusement at family gatherings. </span>Then, for various
reasons practical and personal, this obsession became just a curious
historical anecdote as I discovered Monty Python, George Carlin, the
Second City, and other English-language comedy.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Trying
to describe the appeal of a foreign-language comedian whose prime
came before the internet offered global interconnectivity is not
quite as difficult as dancing about architecture, but it’s still a
bit of a challenge. With that Magilla Gorilla in the room, I’ll
give it a try. </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jeNp9fsNOdc/Wy9UXxsDStI/AAAAAAAACUM/VHHKDXNSP4gesx0RlXFXhUfVJEnw8bpFACLcBGAs/s1600/fernandraynaudob_1f8f2a_image2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="677" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jeNp9fsNOdc/Wy9UXxsDStI/AAAAAAAACUM/VHHKDXNSP4gesx0RlXFXhUfVJEnw8bpFACLcBGAs/s320/fernandraynaudob_1f8f2a_image2.jpg" width="203" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Fernand
Raynaud’s comedy was driven by storytelling,
reciting events and sketches using exaggerated voices and facial expressions, usually building to one big payoff, kind of a
French equivalent of Jerry Clower. And since some of his sketches
became quite popular, he would also effectively be an ancestor of
that genre which “SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE” would mercilessly brand
for eternity as, “The Kings of Catchphrase Comedy.” Raynaud was
in fact often derided by some comedy fans for this appeal, which was
at odds with another popular French comedian of the day, Raymond
Devos, who was perceived as way more literate. Writer <a href="https://www.leberry.fr/clermont-ferrand/2011/12/11/franchement-fernand-raynaud-c-est-quand-meme-pas-grand-chose_124013.html">François Beaune described the divide</a> through the words of a woman he
encountered in 2011:</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“<span style="font-style: normal;">Fernand
Raynaud, really, he was already cheesy back then...When I was young,
there were only two comedians: Fernand Raynaud and Raymond Devos. In
my cultivated, bourgeois family, we loved Devos. [Raynaud’s]
interminable croissant gag...[he] was for the proles, Devos was for
the nerds. There were still real class distinctions.”</span></blockquote>
<br />
Raynaud’s affinity was indeed for working class characters, and
their daily toil against the indignities of job, home, and other
people. This was likely inspired from his upbringing in Oradou, a
suburb of Clermont-Ferrand, dominated by Michelin’s tire factory,
where his father worked as a foreman. He left school at 15, and lived
a nomadic, knockaround life into his 20s, working a multitude of
jobs, doing military service in Berlin during WWII, and losing two of
his fingers in an undefined accident. When he began regularly
performing in Parisian cabarets and television in the mid-’50s, he
performed material inspired by the personalities he had encountered
through his travels, most often sporting a battered hat and long
coat. As Beaune observed, “The characters of Fernand Raynaud are
beautiful and complex creatures: the sister, the switchboard
operator, the customs officer, the [brat]...No stereotypes. Fernand
possessed the art of portraiture, the art of observing, of
transcribing without exaggerating, of sketching reality.”</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i6PvhWcZf30/Wyox2UZkZgI/AAAAAAAACRw/gMTevk6rBgsH4Xc7_oRdLc3-VeXo0cA4gCLcBGAs/s1600/jemamuse.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="183" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i6PvhWcZf30/Wyox2UZkZgI/AAAAAAAACRw/gMTevk6rBgsH4Xc7_oRdLc3-VeXo0cA4gCLcBGAs/s200/jemamuse.gif" width="120" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Probably
the best representation of Raynaud’s skill for social observation and wresting comedy from a repeated phrase is his
well-remembered sketch, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfZ4jWCP6X8&index=12&list=PLH23TYyr2Z0-_XMLoJPiF00kZtouwBXLk&t=0s">J’ m’amuse</a>.” In a set up that serves
as a scarily prescient prediction of modern-day corporate
doublespeak, a factory boss calls an impromptu meeting of all his
employees to inform them that starting immediately, “to boost
morale,” no one is allowed to even say that they are laboring or doing a job, they must say, “I’m enjoying myself.” There are
predictably tired and grouchy recitations of the new euphemism by the unlucky grunts who are put on the spot to test the new rule, but the
sketch reaches its full potential as the boss grills a supply clerk
about his role in the factory, and the clerk keeps repeating the “I’m
enjoying myself” maxim, demonstrating the clear absurdity of this
directive, to a perfect conclusion:<br />
<br />
SUPPLY CLERK: I think
I’ll be enjoying myself here for another fifteen years, until my
retirement, tell you what! </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
THE
BOSS: And after that, what will you do?
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
SUPPLY
CLERK: Well then after that? I'll go to work!
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mJluMbYUn6k/Wy9SeQaG4VI/AAAAAAAACUA/SYE6DcCBNfgfnqWJeYEsW9TJwKWsbvdywCLcBGAs/s1600/fernand-raynaud-45-bourreau-deux.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mJluMbYUn6k/Wy9SeQaG4VI/AAAAAAAACUA/SYE6DcCBNfgfnqWJeYEsW9TJwKWsbvdywCLcBGAs/s320/fernand-raynaud-45-bourreau-deux.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">The
sketch that I had memorized as a five-year-old was “Bourreau
d’</span><span style="font-style: normal;">e</span><span style="font-style: normal;">nfants,”
which literally translates as “Executioner of Children” but would
probably be better understood as simply “Child Abuser.” Raynaud
alternately narrates and acts out the chaos of a dyspeptic father
trying to get his intransigent son to eat his dinner, and the yelling
between them leads the neighbors to constantly scream the title
catchphrase. Perhaps, to modern listeners, that's a grim-sounding scenario
for a lighthearted comedy routine, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">especially
to be re-recited by a child like me back then.</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">However, speaking as a former
child, that's a scenario</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span><span style="font-style: normal;">likely
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">relatable </span><span style="font-style: normal;">to
any parent, or neighbor to a parent for that matter</span><span style="font-style: normal;">;
as the late Rahn Ramey observed, if you’ve never thought about
killing your kids, that’s because your kids don’t live with you.
Revisiting and translating it for this article yielded fresh insight
that I obviously lacked back then. For example, there is a third
character in the sketch, the father’s mother-in-law who vainly
tries to mediate the dispute. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">W</span><span style="font-style: normal;">hich
leads me to the question, where is the actual mother during this
dinner? I rather suspect the fact that Raynaud chose to dramatize a
grandparent rather than the maternal parent was </span><span style="font-style: normal;">perhaps</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
meant to hint that mother was off working a night job! </span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/En-qFphAty0/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/En-qFphAty0?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<span style="font-style: normal;">A reasonabl</span><span style="font-style: normal;">y</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
faithful translation of the French audio is provided in small print
below:<br />
<br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">
FATHER: Toto, eat your soup.<br />
<br />
TOTO: No, I
won’t eat it. Tonight, I don’t want to eat my soup.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
Eat it right away, Toto. Otherwise I will see it as my paternal
obligation to serve you, with deep regret, a lovely pair of slaps to
your face.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TOTO:
Ohh...oh how unhappy I must be...all this crazy slapping when I don’t
want to eat things I don’t like...Oh, I’ve had it...what I life I
lead…</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
Stop your crying, Toto, or otherwise I will give you such a slap,
you'll know why you're crying.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TOTO:
{wailing}</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
neighbors: ‘CHILD ABUSER!’</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
Seriously, you’re not going to rile up the neighborhood because you
don’t want to eat your soup, no? Eat it this instant!</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TOTO:
No, I won’t eat it. Tonight I decided that I won’t eat my soup.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
Oh like that you decided?<br />
<br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TOTO:
Yes, that’s what I decided.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
Well, you’re going to eat it.<br />
<br />
TOTO: No, I won’t eat
it.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
Yes, you will eat it!</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TOTO:
{wailing}</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">MOTHER
IN LAW: It seems to me, my son-in-law, that for the education of your
son, it would certainly be preferable at the moment, would it not,
especially at this time that we live in…</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
You, “mother,” give me a break. If you’re not happy here, I’ll
show you the door.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">MOTHER
IN LAW: This I thought I’d never see; my children, throwing me in
the street.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TOTO:
That’s papa, he wants to throw us in the street. {wailing}</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
neighbors: ‘CHILD ABUSER!’</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
Stop your screaming! I’m not going to play along with this drama!
What do you want to eat since you don’t want to eat your soup?</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TOTO:
What would I like? I would like...a sausage.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
You’d eat a sausage?<br />
<br />
TOTO: Tonight I’d definitely eat
a sausage.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
Well, you’re not going to eat a sausage because you are going to
eat your soup right this minute.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TOTO:
No, I’ll eat a sausage.<br />
<br />
FATHER: No, you won’t eat it.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TOTO:
{wailing}</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
neighbors: ‘CHILD ABUSER!’</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
father goes downstairs at top speed, he rouses the butcher after they've closed for the night, and he returns with a sausage.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
There. Happy? You’ll give me a moment’s peace now?
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TOTO:
{wailing}<br />
<br />
FATHER: What are you going on about now, what do
you want?<br />
<br />
TOTO: I want you to have a piece before me.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
That I eat a sausage? After I’ve already had my jam? Never, you
hear.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TOTO:
Uh-huh. I know you want to poison me, then.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
No, but you’re crazy. Yes, completely. I don’t want to poison
you.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TOTO:
Then eat a piece!</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
No, I won’t eat it!
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TOTO:
{wailing}</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
neighbors: ‘CHILD ABUSER!’</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
Be quiet, you! I swear to you, I’ll eat your darned piece of
sausage. And after that you’ll give me peace. (mouth full) Because,
first off...pay attention...I’ll show you out the door, you hear?
So don’t make your faces at me. You’ll be eating your sausage
with your school teachers. (swallow) There! Are you happy? I ate your
piece of sausage!
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TOTO:
{wailing}</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
neighbors: ‘CHILD ABUSER!’</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">FATHER:
How can this be? You didn’t want to eat your soup, you didn’t eat
it. You wanted me to bring you a sausage and I brought it. You wanted
me to eat a piece, and I ate it. And you’re still whining? Why?</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TOTO:
You ate the piece that I wanted!</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
Thinking back to that very distant time of my childhood, where memory is often difficult to recover, I am inclined to believe that while I liked the laughs I was getting for regurgitating
the routine, I was probably first drawn to it and ultimately embraced it because with the highs and lows of the
dialogue between the sketch's father and son, it was almost like memorizing a favorite song. Maybe it was less about the subject matter and more the melody of the French being spoken itself that drew me in.<br />
<br />
Similarly, to really get in a zone to write this piece, I mainlined easily two dozen or more monologues and sketches of Raynaud's, some of which I was able to suss out meaning from with my pidgin understanding of French, some that I did not but instead simply listened to, indeed, as if they were musical compositions. And while I've got a definite bias because I'm trying to sell the validity of my subject to the reader, I did feel a definite and immediate sense of comfort listening to his patter at length, the kind of easy feeling decades of "A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION" audiences have likely felt. I have not yet gone so far as to listen to an equal amount of his ersatz rivals Raymond Devos or Colouche or Fernandel, but I'm open to that idea, depending on how much response I get for this initial foray. But I digress.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u7fcrpuIlyw/Wy9kcGghYYI/AAAAAAAACUs/f-FYao8fnuEOMzM8V_4Bv-tkIOoNHP0FwCLcBGAs/s1600/fernand-raynaud-inafr-hereux.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="620" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u7fcrpuIlyw/Wy9kcGghYYI/AAAAAAAACUs/f-FYao8fnuEOMzM8V_4Bv-tkIOoNHP0FwCLcBGAs/s320/fernand-raynaud-inafr-hereux.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
At
the height of his fame in the ‘60s, doing TV and movies in France,
and taking his stage act to London, Canada, and Africa, Raynaud was
now in a paradoxical position. His success meant he could take his
children on holidays his hard-laboring father could not, but they
would often have to cut their visits short due to being besieged by
fans. Also, the high demand for his performances led to being subject
to higher taxes, which he could only feasibly pay off by working even
more than he already was. <a href="http://www.dhnet.be/medias/divers/fernand-raynaud-vu-par-son-fils-51b7cce9e4b0de6db98ef3cd">His son Pascal recounted</a> in a 2003
interview that he tried to balance all these conflicting forces as
best he could: “Even when he was traveling 400 kilometers away, he
drove all night to get home and sleep at home...It bothered him not
to have the life of the simple man.” However, he would allow himself one
major indulgence that would be in stark contrast to his working-class
roots: after being served with a tax bill of 300,000 francs, he spent
an equivalent amount on a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. Finally, to hold onto
more of his income and ease his work schedule, Raynaud moved his
residence to Nouméa, on the peninsula of New Caledonia, just out of reach of the revenuers.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Raynaud
never did make inroads into the United States, but strangely enough,
some of his material did.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yL7FeswoiMU/Wy9hdPWyd2I/AAAAAAAACUY/lyPUT-99_pEfTXXeS7Oc38onqBDg1Vp7gCLcBGAs/s1600/TheElectricCompanylogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="673" height="241" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yL7FeswoiMU/Wy9hdPWyd2I/AAAAAAAACUY/lyPUT-99_pEfTXXeS7Oc38onqBDg1Vp7gCLcBGAs/s320/TheElectricCompanylogo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
It’s not known who precisely was the
Francophile on the writing staff of the 1971-1977 Children’s
Television Workshop educational series “THE ELECTRIC COMPANY,”
but two of Reynaud’s sketches were repurposed, without credit, into
animated segments for the show. The segments were done by the late
Jerry Lieberman, whose studio would later create logo treatments for
Nickelodeon and Turner Broadcasting and the animated portions of
Cyndi Lauper’s “She Bop” video.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
The first sketch really needs no introduction, suffice to say that the animated version pares down what was a wordy 6 minute monologue into a tight playlet.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DGgXO47eS-g/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DGgXO47eS-g?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PTEeJE3tzDE/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PTEeJE3tzDE?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
other, “Deux croissants,” mentioned earlier in this essay, became
the “Sweet Roll” segment, which proved so popular, it was
restaged in live action with Hattie Winston and Jim Boyd in a later
season. While the ingredients change, the principle is the same: a
clueless customer continues to request the one menu item an
increasingly flustered server tells him is not available. Raynaud’s
original finishes with a third character, another diner who
castigates the customer for annoying the server, stating that had it
been them taking the order, they would have used the non-existent
croissants to smack him in the face. The “ELECTRIC COMPANY”
version just ends with the server running to the kitchen screaming.
In the 2006 book SMARTBOMB by Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby, another
variation was attributed to computer game developer Will Wright, who
described it as a “Zen” joke, with no acknowledgment to its
previous telling by Raynaud or the TV series.
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QYdftKDlrGc/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QYdftKDlrGc?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GbZu-JzTFGM/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GbZu-JzTFGM?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Now,
it is entirely possible that, befitting the old “music hall”
style of narrative comedy he practiced, maybe Raynaud was not in fact
the original author of those sketches. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">For example, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">another of </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Raynaud’s</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> recordings, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtADuXkM560&index=4&list=PLH23TYyr2Z0-_XMLoJPiF00kZtouwBXLk&t=0s">Le tailleur</a>,” is essentially a variation of what has circulated since American vaudeville as “<a href="https://youtu.be/gpWLwp6GR9Q">The Suit Joke</a>.” ("Oh, that poor man!" "Yes, but what a perfect suit!") And </span><span style="font-style: normal;">“</span><span style="font-style: normal;">It’s
the Plumber” has been attributed to both American comic Buddy
Hackett and UK comic Duggie Brown</span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">though finding a concrete
date of telling it has so far proved elusive, thus it is possible Raynaud told
it first. </span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_8kn4xbAAcg/Wy9h_HAODXI/AAAAAAAACUg/nYKF6GxVGzUu1McmS-nHbQhx9iHCPO5IwCLcBGAs/s1600/fernandraynaudplombiercroissants116193183.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="678" data-original-width="678" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_8kn4xbAAcg/Wy9h_HAODXI/AAAAAAAACUg/nYKF6GxVGzUu1McmS-nHbQhx9iHCPO5IwCLcBGAs/s320/fernandraynaudplombiercroissants116193183.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-style: normal;">But getting back to the prime point, while one shared </span><span style="font-style: normal;">sketch</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
could be attributed to coincidence </span><span style="font-style: normal;">and
public domain status</span><span style="font-style: normal;">, the
fact that </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>two</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
sketches widely associated with </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Raynaud -- even packaged together on the same 45 --</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> got restaged on the same TV show suggests that some wily bilingual
was taking notes from his act.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And
of course, when I was a comedy-devouring child, I wasn’t about joke
theft. I was just surprised that somehow that sketch from one of my
mother’s 45s made it to one of my favorite TV shows. And we all had
a laugh about it, back at that age when laughing in my mother’s
presence came much more
naturally than it would once I got older.</div>
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">In
the fall of 1973, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">the
47-year-old </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Raynaud was ready
to step away. He </span><span style="font-style: normal;">had booked </span><span style="font-style: normal;">a
benefit performance </span><span style="font-style: normal;">for factory workers </span><span style="font-style: normal;">in </span><span style="font-style: normal;">his
hometown of Clermont-Ferrand </span><span style="font-style: normal;">on</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
September 28th</span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
and intended to </span><span style="font-style: normal;">hold a press
conference before the show </span><span style="font-style: normal;">with
the mayor to announce his retirement. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">H</span><span style="font-style: normal;">e
had </span><span style="font-style: normal;">specifically chosen this
location and occasion for personal symbolism, having previously
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">encapsulated his feelings for
the city</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span><span style="font-style: normal;">in
1970:</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> "When, coming from
Paris, after Aigueperse, on the blue road, I see the </span><span style="font-style: normal;">P</span><span style="font-style: normal;">uy
de Dome, and </span><span style="font-style: normal;">after </span><span style="font-style: normal;">that,
passing by Riom, built in Volvic stone, I see </span><span style="font-style: normal;">[the
sign]</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> ‘Clermont-Ferrand, 14
kilometers,’ my heart beats strong</span><span style="font-style: normal;">er</span><span style="font-style: normal;">.
I am </span><span style="font-style: normal;">affected</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
as a lover who will </span><span style="font-style: normal;">return to</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
a beloved woman."</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">As
writer Jean-Baptiste Ledys <a href="https://www.lamontagne.fr/clermont-ferrand/faits-divers/puy-de-dome/2018/01/07/le-jour-ou-lhumoriste-fernand-raynaud-nous-a-fait-pleurer_12690767.html">wrote
this past January</a>, “In this declaration of love that Fernand
Raynaud made for Clermont-Ferrand...the comedian did not know that he
described the road on which he would die.”</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Running
late for his press conference, Raynaud’s Silver Shadow, chosen </span><span style="font-style: normal;">this day because his preferred </span><span style="font-style: normal;">traveling</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> car had been stolen two days before, that piquant prize </span><span style="font-style: normal;">which he
had jokingly described to his friends as “an assassin,” </span><span style="font-style: normal;">went
out of control after the </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Aigueperse</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
curve, hit a livestock trailer, and continued for 80 meters until
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">crashing into the wall of the
Cheix-sur-Morge cemetery, killing him instantly.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
La
Montagne, one of the French publications waiting for him at the press
conference that never happened, later
declared in a headline: “For
the first time, Fernand made us cry.”</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Raynaud’s
most beloved monologue was called simply, “<a href="http://www.ina.fr/video/I05339984">Hereux</a>.”
Within the flexibility of French, it can mean “Happy,” but also
the more sober reading, “Content.” In his monologue, he portrays
a road worker, talking about his unassuming but also unstressful
daily life, and contrasting it with the dissatisfied feelings of the
relatives he reluctantly meets with once a year, repeating the word
“Hereux” frequently. When one of his relatives, a philosopher,
challenges him to prove how he can be so content with his lot in
life, another relative, a doctor, stands up for him, saying, “Have
you ever seen a road worker go on strike?”
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“Hereux”
would become his best known catch phrase. When tabloids reported on
his tax disputes and other
domestic troubles, they
always invoked it with a question mark. When his sketches were
published in a 1975 book,
and when actor Jean Rochefort staged a Hal-Holbrook-as-Mark-Twain-style tribute to Raynaud in 2004,
performing his classic scenes and songs to packed audiences, it was
used as the title. And most importantly, it is the word on his
headstone in
Saint-Germain-des-Fosses, the municipality in central France where he
vacationed in childhood.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ahtVGGkmd-g/Wy95340HvXI/AAAAAAAACU4/3lhze59rSN4lrsWKS3nUbh0Gdv-ch2HOACLcBGAs/s1600/FernandRaynaud_stele.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ahtVGGkmd-g/Wy95340HvXI/AAAAAAAACU4/3lhze59rSN4lrsWKS3nUbh0Gdv-ch2HOACLcBGAs/s320/FernandRaynaud_stele.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In
<a href="http://fernand-raino.over-blog.com/article-fernand-raynaud-souvenirs-de-claude-lelouch-55686702.html">August
of 2010</a>, filmmaker and
Academy Award winner Claude
Lelouch offered this personal memory of Raynaud:<br />
<br />
"I
knew him well, he was one of those people who really made me laugh...I
remember an evening spent at a friend's house who had very, very
beautiful paintings, and had a very beautiful Picasso. Fernand had
advised him to put it in the bathroom because, he said, this is where we
have time to appreciate [things] every day. The masterpieces, we
should put them in the bathroom, where we have time to look at them,
[otherwise] in the living room we pass them by...He was a very
astonishing person and it is true that he was constantly [concerned
about] the truth; I had a
little talk with him, and he said, 'If
there is not one whiff
of truth in my sketch, it won't hold the road.'"<br />
<br />
And perhaps, without me knowing it, that was the seed planted in me from that first comedy record. Truth. One kid recognizing how bratty behavior can sound amusing, especially when you clumsily recount it to the grownups instead of committing it yourself. One adult recognizing how when you try to futz with or manipulate what truth is only makes you look more stupid. And all the time in between, finding those real things that would indeed make one content, if not completely happy.<br />
<br />
So I think I can say truthfully that I really went to work in enjoying myself for you all.</div>
<br />Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-86882777832291625902018-07-05T10:18:00.000-07:002018-07-05T10:18:13.293-07:00The Lady Emerges: Aimee Eccles speaks!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3U0ny7IUZb8/Wzclu0hanWI/AAAAAAAACVE/arGsDQ8cGzc3_Xfv7HYClYnnsd-zdQOZgCLcBGAs/s1600/EcclesPlayboy71.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="322" data-original-width="500" height="257" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3U0ny7IUZb8/Wzclu0hanWI/AAAAAAAACVE/arGsDQ8cGzc3_Xfv7HYClYnnsd-zdQOZgCLcBGAs/s400/EcclesPlayboy71.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
A pair of perpetually sad eyes staring from a face obscured
by cloth. A naive high school girl so genuine in her belief in flower
power a cynical detective can’t help being fond of her as he lifts
her lingo in mocking condescension. A working woman taking stumbling,
comical, but ultimately liberating steps into polyamory. These are
the standout memories for me in the career of the beckoning performer
Aimee Eccles. Her poise and conduct have always presented the best
blend of old European propriety with laid-back California charm.
There is not as much air of mystery about her as some of the other
women I’ve spoken to in this ongoing series, since she has had the
good fortune to amass a larger body of work, and has maintained a
more familiar presence in both cult and mainstream cinema. But like
them, she has not previously been given a forum to speak at length
about that rich history. Thus, I was enormously happy when she agreed
to invest the time with me to share her memories about her life
before, during, and after being an active actress.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
would you like to say about your background, and what your formative
years were like?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
This is a complicated question for me and I'll have to make it brief.
I've been told my childhood is what books and movies are made of. My
early developmental years were in Hong Kong. I was from a mixed
marriage. My dad was British and my mom Chinese. My father passed
away when I was 4 and my mother became a single mom. She was a loving
mother, but both my older half-brother and I had to share her with
her gambling addiction. It was feast or famine depending on her luck
that day. Nuns from our private schools and our maid were our
authority figures and since they weren't our parent, we both did what
we pleased. All that changed when my mother passed away and I was
adopted into America at the age 10. My father was a college professor
and my mother a secondary school teacher. Both lovely people but so
different, and yet had the utmost respect for one another. My mother
was very religious with an Elizabethan sense of morality and my
father was agnostic and progressive. I went to Catholic schools, and
attended an Anglican Church or a Unitarian church on alternate
Sundays. My life went from very little structure to accountability
for every moment. At the age of 17 when my adopted father passed
away, I moved from NY to CA to get away from the chilling winters. In
retrospect, I think I learned very young that the only guarantee in
life is change.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did
you have any previous interest in the arts in general, or movies in
particular, before you appeared in films?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
No, I wasn't raised watching TV in Hong Kong, and both my mother &
brother preferred traditional Chinese films & plays. Both of
these art forms in China were torture to me. The traditional Chinese
films were mythological, period pieces where humans at midnight would
turn into animals or large reptiles and revenge bad people in town. I
would watch with my hands over my face, slid down in the theater
chair. Chinese plays or operas are something you can only watch once.
The high pitched sing song voices of the actors is an acquired taste,
which I never developed. When I came to the States, I discovered my
passions. In my school library I discovered art books and learned
about the Impressionistic movement, Dadaism, Modernism, etc. and fell
in love with art. I spent the majority of my time sketching, at the
ballet barre, or visiting museums. I really never got addicted to TV
and still don't watch it except to watch reruns of “SEINFELD” to
fall asleep. However, I did discover I liked films. In my freshman
year in high school, they showed A RAISIN IN THE SUN. Mother Superior
talked about camera angles and touched on the filmmaking process. I
was fascinated! Then I saw WEST SIDE STORY and became a fan. I than
added my love for cinema to my list of passions.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did
you have a favorite film or TV show back then?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I enjoy all genres of films except horror. Dark comedy is perhaps my
favorite. A few of the directors I enjoyed at the time were Luis
Bunuel, Francois Truffaut, Federico Fellini, Stanley Kubrick, and
Akira Kurosawa. On a lighter note, the one TV show I enjoyed as a
young adult was “BEWITCHED”. The idea that reality could be
changed by a twitch of the nose was delightful! It was shot on the
Columbia lot, where I was studying to be an actor after my arrival to
California.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YJeBBBU1T8A/WzcmVHrmeUI/AAAAAAAACVM/CiQnt8LQLgg2MOJCMezoutl_t7-Zj91XQCLcBGAs/s1600/9bc4281b5e979b13cb795f0c63d8583e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YJeBBBU1T8A/WzcmVHrmeUI/AAAAAAAACVM/CiQnt8LQLgg2MOJCMezoutl_t7-Zj91XQCLcBGAs/s400/9bc4281b5e979b13cb795f0c63d8583e.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>How
did you become involved in your first movie, NO MORE EXCUSES?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It was a pure accident...as was the beginning of my acting career. I
was modeling in NYC and had just left a print job interview. Robert
Downey Sr. approached me in the street and asked me if I'd be in a
short commercial. He was an ad man at the time but explained this
would be for his personal project. I had no interest in being an
actor, nor did I know what it would entail. Downey Sr. promised it
would be painless and quick, so we agreed on a date and time. And
true to his words, the shoot was quick and painless.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
else was going on in your life around the time that you were cast?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Not much... I was modeling and it was an exciting time to be growing
up in NYC. There was so much creativity; art and music happening
everywhere, especially in the Village.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
were your impressions of Robert Downey Sr. and his associates?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Robert Downey Sr. was a creative, spontaneous, and gentle person.
After shooting my part in NO MORE EXCUSES, I walked away and never
gave it another thought. Years later we would reconnect in LA, he as
a director and I as an actress. He invited me to his home in
Brentwood to do table reads of his scripts in progress. I remember a
teenage Robert Downey Jr. watching us from his bedroom door, when he
should have been doing his homework. Who would have known at that
time, this was the making of a successful actor today.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did
that appearance help steer you to other early acting jobs?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It didn't impact on me at all. I wasn't pursuing an acting career. In
fact, if Jack Gilardi from ICM had not seen me on the closed circuit
TV at the old Playboy Club on Sunset, and approached our table to ask
me to go on an interview at Columbia the following day, I would not
have ventured into acting. I had literally just arrived from NY that
week and I was set up on a blind date when all this happened.
Apparently they were looking for my type for a role in a David Swift
film about students who attend an international boarding school in
Switzerland. I met Jack Gilardi at Columbia the next morning and I
was introduced to the producer, Jerry Tokofsky, and a few other
executives at Columbia. Then it was decided by all these adults that
I should be put into the new talent program at Columbia directed by
Walter Beakel, who became my mentor and later my agent for the
duration of my career. I remember being asked by Jerry Tokofsky if
I'd like to be an actress. My response was, "I don't know...I've
never thought about it."
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Outside the studio, after my meetings, Jack Gilardi said, "Everyone
thinks you're right for the part, but they said you have no
personality."
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
"What am I supposed to do?" I asked.
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
"TALK!" replied Jack.
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I was mystified. "But about what?"
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
"ANYTHING!" replied an exasperated Jack.
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And that's how my acting career began...
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The film I was training for, DEEP FREEZE GIRLS, was never made. About
6 months later, Columbia sent me to CBS to meet with Arthur Penn and
I got the role of Sunshine in LITTLE BIG MAN, which was my first
feature.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vvVciGvdoT0/WzcnVT-pnEI/AAAAAAAACVY/z5fgz6tlKLICo-Z1UV3ltJJ5IHxLnNOhwCLcBGAs/s1600/EcclesPrettyMaids1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vvVciGvdoT0/WzcnVT-pnEI/AAAAAAAACVY/z5fgz6tlKLICo-Z1UV3ltJJ5IHxLnNOhwCLcBGAs/s400/EcclesPrettyMaids1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>How
did you become involved with PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
My agent talked me into it. It was Vadim's film debut in America. He
said that being in a Vadim film meant I would be considered one of
the beautiful women in Hollywood, since Vadim is known to work with
beautiful French leading ladies such as Brigitte Bardot and Catherine
Deneuve.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Was
the sexual tone of the story and your character’s relationship to
it intimidating?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Very much so! Don't forget I attended Catholic schools all my life &
having a very religious mother, I strongly objected to the nudity.
Both my agent and Vadim reassured me, it would be a closed set. I
finally agreed. Little did I know that this film would later prepare
me for GROUP MARRIAGE.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
was it like on the set? Did you get along with the leads and the
other players?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Working on a comedy is always fun. Cast and crew joke around and
there's always a jovial feeling on the set. Our set in particular
became a popular place for agents to visit with so many beautiful
ingénues on the film. Vadim had an easy going style about him, and
the cast of students we portrayed were all close in age.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Were
there any fun moments during shooting or off the set?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
We didn't hang out off the set. The hours are so long when we're
shooting, we rarely do. There was extensive publicity associated with
the film, which required all the "pretty maids" to attend.
We had fun with each other and Rock Hudson on the set and at the
still shoots. I think the PR photos show that we all genuinely
enjoyed each other's company.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YTNxfimQ32w/WzcnbzY1C3I/AAAAAAAACVc/FEODkvPiKesyM0q23XAytbXBXkXtV7bnQCLcBGAs/s1600/Eccles%252BFairchildPrettyMaids1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="145" data-original-width="272" height="212" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YTNxfimQ32w/WzcnbzY1C3I/AAAAAAAACVc/FEODkvPiKesyM0q23XAytbXBXkXtV7bnQCLcBGAs/s400/Eccles%252BFairchildPrettyMaids1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>You
were clearly very fond of June Fairchild. Did you maintain any
further contact with her or anyone else involved in the film?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
June was a sweet person, gentle soul with a great sense of humor. We
spoke several times after the filming but lost touch when I traveled
to Europe. Years later, I ran into a friend of hers who recognized
me, at the Canyon Store in Laurel Canyon, and he shared with me that
June had a baby and was living in the valley. He and I didn't
exchange numbers and June apparently had a new one, as did I. That
was the last I had heard of her until you contacted me.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
was the reaction of you and your friends when PRETTY MAIDS was
released?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of course in Hollywood, everyone thought it was cool. But I hid it
from my family. With so much publicity, they found out anyway. My
dear mother, who is an English and speech teacher, reviewed my
performance as "I had the best diction of all the actresses in
the film."
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
kind of attention, if any, did you experience from the film, and did
you find it pleasant or unpleasant?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I didn't receive any negative feedback from the film. It just became
part of my body of work, so be speak...another learning experience,
another credit.
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZYvvMASzs8c/WzcnniDch0I/AAAAAAAACVg/SBsn2k445bUHfZ-pC8V_5g9rVU4RR7MNwCLcBGAs/s1600/EcclesUlzanawide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="764" height="226" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZYvvMASzs8c/WzcnniDch0I/AAAAAAAACVg/SBsn2k445bUHfZ-pC8V_5g9rVU4RR7MNwCLcBGAs/s400/EcclesUlzanawide.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Who
or what was responsible for your casting in ULZANA'S RAID?"</i></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As my memory serves me, Robert Aldrich contacted my agent. I had a
brief meeting with Robert Aldrich and Burt Lancaster and was cast
immediately.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>I
understand you were supposed to have a substantial role in the film.
What were the original plans for your character?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I never had a large role in this film. I was only in the beginning of
the screenplay with Burt Lancaster as his squaw. They wanted someone
who could look attractive with the tip of her nose cut off. I was
told the punishment for a woman's infidelity in the Apache custom was
to cut off the tip of her nose and shame her publicly. I presume the
establishing shot with Burt Lancaster was to show his humanity. After
he leaves his camp, the movie is just one battle after another with
the US infantry and the "savages." It took almost one month
in makeup to get the nose they wanted for a couple of days of shoot.
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G9exZsnrYIs/Wzcnw0MjjgI/AAAAAAAACVo/uZx5OKdiCQMpgtA3XkcpiuXzp9beDhK0wCLcBGAs/s1600/EcclesUlzana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="768" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G9exZsnrYIs/Wzcnw0MjjgI/AAAAAAAACVo/uZx5OKdiCQMpgtA3XkcpiuXzp9beDhK0wCLcBGAs/s400/EcclesUlzana.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did
you change your acting approach as a result of the changes to your
character...try to do more with your eyes and physical presence to
make more from your reduced screen time?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
There were not much choices for a character in that era who has been
broken, rejected from her tribe and now living with "the white
devils." I just played inferior and submissive as directed.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I was the only woman in the film and on location. We were in the
middle of the desert close to Nogales, NM, a border town. The
production had a bus that would take the actors and stuntmen to
Nogales in the evenings. The stuntmen enjoyed going into town every
night, to get drunk, and get into fights with the locals. The next
day they would laugh about their exploits and the red light district.
I was curious about this red light district. So I asked Bruce Davison
if he'd take me there. So one night Bruce mustered up his nerves and
agreed. As we were strolling the street of this red light district,
three Mexican guys stepped from a poorly lit doorway in front of us.
The leader starts shoving Bruce and asked him what he thinks he's
doing there. Bruce didn't know what to say or do and just kept
backing up. Tired of the bullying, I slap the guy in the face and
said "Shame on you, what would your mother say about this?"
He was stunned when he heard me speak perfect English. I guess he
thought I was Mexican hanging out with a white guy. Bruce and I
walked off and when we were out of the reach of the guys, he looked
at me and said angrily, "You could have got us killed!" My
answer was, "But I didn't. I saved you." Crazy times, good
memories.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eplTz9j1OOg/WzcsuoZmhPI/AAAAAAAACV4/XYX-IH4fOz4uzLJ5m_D7Le4G_UyF2SsUQCLcBGAs/s1600/EcclesGMvidcap1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="455" data-original-width="855" height="212" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eplTz9j1OOg/WzcsuoZmhPI/AAAAAAAACV4/XYX-IH4fOz4uzLJ5m_D7Le4G_UyF2SsUQCLcBGAs/s400/EcclesGMvidcap1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>How
did you become involved with GROUP MARRIAGE?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Stephanie Rothman and her producer husband, Charles Schwartz,
contacted my agent. When I found out it was a woman director, I was
very interested! My agent was not in favor of me doing a "low
budget, independent film that was sexually exploitative".
Female directors didn't exist at that time. So I jumped at the
opportunity to work with her. I had been attending film school at
Los Angeles City College at that time. I had never thought about
being an actress until I became one. But I discovered while acting,
the filmmaking process fascinated me. I loved the illusion of the
visual image. I later transferred to UCLA film school for a couple of
years. I was successful in getting a few jobs as a crew member of
several independent shorts, but I think I was born ahead of my time.
When I broached the subject of wanting to work on a film crew as an
assistant, I was rebuked with the same sentiment every time, "Why
would you want to do that dirty work? Being an actress is much
better."</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
were your feelings about getting cast in such a significant role in
the film?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I didn't think about it. I guess I don't think in those terms...And I
still don't. In film school, I learned that a film is a collaborative
effort. I observed this on the set. To me every actor, including
atmosphere and stand ins, are a critical aspect of the film. Perhaps
that is what is flawed in my thinking. I should have been more
ambitious as an actress and valued the money and prestige, like so
many in the industry do. Instead I believed in the aesthetics of the
process and looked at it as art.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eelK-_C9HfI/Wzcs2Su8-hI/AAAAAAAACV8/Hw7HB1s-P3cNKuZtRY8DhG1A_YlSDoApgCLcBGAs/s1600/EcclesGroupMarriage1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="511" height="202" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eelK-_C9HfI/Wzcs2Su8-hI/AAAAAAAACV8/Hw7HB1s-P3cNKuZtRY8DhG1A_YlSDoApgCLcBGAs/s400/EcclesGroupMarriage1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did
you take particular pleasure in being an Asian actress headlining a
film, and playing a non-stereotypical, everyday Asian character, at a
time when those instances were still a rarity?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
That is a great question. From my observation, it's still a rarity.
With social media, our world has become a smaller place with
diversity being common. How is it and why is there still constant
dialogue in Hollywood about whitewashing and inclusion? The majority
of Hollywood films and TV do not represent the diversity in real
life. It seems not much has changed since I left the industry. I was
lucky to have had the career I did. It is disappointing to see with
the advancement of technology that Hollywood is lagging in it's
storytelling with representation of the world today. Unless the story
is about a specific race of people or a period piece, actors should
be considered and cast based on their talent and not their ethnicity.
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pjttp4JyXYA/Wzc3ksjQcGI/AAAAAAAACXg/LL6IdnYxRtw9Gr8btqJFhHkMmm0iyaE9wCLcBGAs/s1600/GROUP-MARRIAGE1520.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="945" data-original-width="1520" height="247" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pjttp4JyXYA/Wzc3ksjQcGI/AAAAAAAACXg/LL6IdnYxRtw9Gr8btqJFhHkMmm0iyaE9wCLcBGAs/s400/GROUP-MARRIAGE1520.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
are your memories of the cast?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It was a small cast and everyone was a professional. We worked as an
ensemble to make each other look good. Stephanie chose well in both
her cast and crew. The process of making GROUP MARRIAGE flowed
cohesively.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="western" style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What was your impression of Stephanie Rothman as a writer/director?</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0in;">
She was great to work with! Stephanie and her producer husband, Charles Schwartz, were a wonderful, professional team. She wrote a story that was pure entertainment, reflecting the exploration of the new sexual revolution, free love, and women's lib of the time. When she cast me in the lead, she never saw me as an Asian actress. She compared me to a Leslie Caron. The atmosphere on the set was relaxed and non-pretentious. I'm glad I chose to do the film.</div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
sorts of roles were you reading for during your ‘70s and ‘80s
activity?</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I began my career playing a Native American and once it was
discovered I was Asian, it seemed I went out for only Asian parts.
That's why working on GROUP MARRIAGE was so refreshing. After GROUP
MARRIAGE I flew to Toho’s studio to play a part of a Chinese
princess in “MARCO” with Desi Arnaz Jr. and Zero Mostel. Type
casting was prevalent in the 70's and 80's as it still is in
Hollywood. </div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I [recently] attended a screening of THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW
AND SELECTED). It just so happened there was a Q&A after with
cast members including Dustin Hoffman. I've always appreciated
Dustin's candor. When he was asked the secret of his longevity, he
answered it all started with luck. He couldn't land a play and if it
wasn't for Mike Nichols' exhaustion of trying to cast the two young
leads in THE GRADUATE, he would have never gotten the part because it
was against type. He mentioned that in his career, he never did as
many films as his college roommates, Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall.
Now he was frank in stating that he had turned down the part in THE
MEYEROWITZ STORY for two years. The scripts he's been receiving
recently are all for his character to die of cancer or a heart
attack. He referenced that in THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES, he was in a
long coma in the film. Type casting isn't just reserved to ethnicity
in Hollywood. Age and gender are also discriminations that actors
deal with.
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<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
was it like for a young Asian actress as yourself in that time?</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It was frustrating to go out once or twice a month for auditions, if
that, when my Caucasian contemporaries went out 2-3 times a week.
Anyone who was considered to be a person of color at that time
experienced the same affects of type casting, whether you were
African American, Hispanic, Indian, Muslin, or Asian. There wasn't
the exposure of very many immigrants other then in a few large
cities, nor was there the internet and the exposure of social media
to bring us all together. </div>
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With the high visibility of African
Americans/Blacks in music and sports today, there is more acceptance
and we see more cast in Hollywood films and on TV. The Black
community of filmmakers have been proactive about the lack of work
available in the industry and have created content for themselves.
The recent films they've made such as MOONLIGHT, STRAIGHT OUTTA
COMPTON, GET OUT to name a few, have been box office successes, with
one winning an Academy Award. Even then, discrimination still exists.
This was the subject faced by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Arts
in the past few years. Other ethnic races have been overlooked in
Hollywood and they need to follow the example of Black filmmakers.
Being vocal and creating content for themselves is so important
today. The industry is a very different place. From my recent
research into the industry today, I can't say I'm very impressed. I
feel sorry for young actors starting out. They literally need to
create content for themselves to be seen. The casting directors are
overwhelmed by the amount of submissions, because everyone can submit
themselves. Being a union member is almost a detriment. Non-union is
preferred in many commercials and films. And there are too many union
members, because it's so easy to get a SAG-AFTRA card now. What I see
is the same people working and working, and very few new faces in
major Hollywood productions. It's about safe casting that brings in
guaranteed revenue as opposed to creative casting. After all, the
film and TV industries have always been a business. It's more so now
with the new media.</div>
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<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Have
you ever received criticism over your presence/performance in a film
from POC or other minority viewers? What sorts of things were they
objecting to?</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
No, I've never received criticism from fans...I still receive warm
letters from fans today, which surprises me since I've been absent
from the industry for so long. When I was working, I would receive
criticism from producers that I wasn't Asian enough. The two shows
that came to mind was Jack Lord of “HAWAII FIVE-O”. He refused to
have me on the show because my eyes were too big. And the producer of
“KUNG FU” thought I wasn't Asian enough, and yet I would star
opposite David Carradine, who made a career playing an Asian kung fu
artist. How ironic!
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<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>How
did you deal with those situations then?</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Personally there have been no objections from fans, only admiration
and love. The objections from the industry were handled by my agents.
It's difficult being mixed. You're not white enough to play Caucasian
roles, but sometimes not ethnic enough in the eyes of the director,
producer, or casting director to play the ethnicity you are mixed
with. Surprisingly, the group that embraced me the most have been the
Native Americans. I am treated as family. I was just approached by a
young artist working on a mural of the Dakota Pipeline. He asked my
permission to include me in the mural. I felt humbled and honored. I
checked out some of his work and was surprised he never went to art
school. Everything he learned was from his father, who is an artist
as well. Through our communication, we have become friends. It's
always a pleasure to meet good people, especially artists who are
creative.
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Have
some of these criticisms dissipated over the years, or have they
changed shape?</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Fans still love me and based on what I observe in the industry today,
I'd still be typecast.</div>
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<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
was your experience making Sylvester Stallone’s PARADISE ALLEY?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I would prefer not to go into details about that shoot. Sly was going
through some growing pains and he shared them all with his cast and
crew. I think now that he is older, he may have found some humility.
</div>
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</div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did
you ever get to see the film in his longer intended version versus
the one that was released?</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Yes, I did and I am comfortable with the one released. Don't forget,
PARADISE ALLEY was adapted from a book Sly wrote and it was his first
directorial venture. It received terrible press after release.
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Aside
from the films given prominence here, what are the other performances
and/or collaborators from your body of work that you are particularly
fond of?</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
LITTLE BIG MAN was my first film and probably my favorite. Everything
I know about films to this day, I learned from Arthur Penn. He was a
brilliant filmmaker, a perfectionist, a purist, and a visionary. He
wanted the film to be authentic and was trying to cast only Native
Americans. He had traveled to reservations for two years casting
various roles, but couldn't find anyone to play Sunshine. I was his
first appointment on his first day of casting in Hollywood. I was
terrified and I wasn't afraid to show it. This was apparently what he
was looking for. He continued his interviews at CBS on Radcliffe
throughout the day but wouldn't release me. He called an actor to
work with me at the café across the street from the studio. The more
I objected to being in the film, the more he was convinced I was
Sunshine. Since I was under age, he called my mother to get her
permission to sign me onto the project. Arthur kept me on location
through the entirety of filming to overcome my shyness and my
reticence to be in the film. I spent most of my days hanging out on
the set watching Arthur work. It is because of him I fell in love
with the filmmaking process. In his soft spoken, unassuming style, he
made a large production seem like a small family. Arthur Penn was
probably the most influential person in my life.
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<br /></div>
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<i>Was
stepping away from acting the result of cumulative events, or was
there a specific one that steered you to do other things?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I had gone from one continent and culture, to another, and then
Hollywood. My proverbial quest for the 'meaning of life' had led me
to extensive literature on spirituality and long trips away from
Hollywood to find myself. With all the material comforts Hollywood
provided, I felt an emptiness in my life. I thought marriage and a
family was the next progression in finding myself. It was not my
intention to stay away for so long. But like all things, your
perception of what will be or what you anticipate will happen, is not
what will manifest as reality. My failed marriage turned out to be a
gift. Two beautiful daughters resulted from my marriage and because
of them, I discovered strength, re-evaluated my values, learned
unconditional love, sacrifice, a higher sense of self, and that
failure is never an option.
</div>
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</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did
you learn anything from your experiences that helped you later in
life, in any kind of field or moment that is not necessarily
artistic?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Acting taught me to overcome my shyness. Although I'm still a bit of
an introvert and a private person, I'm able and am known to start
conversations with strangers in passing about anything, everything,
or nothing. Here's something that may sound strange to you or not,
but anything I pursued that was left brain, I approached it as an
actress playing the part. By doing so, anything new was possible and
I was undaunted. Also, acting and filmmaking taught me endurance,
tenacity, and gave me improvisational skills. All very useful life
skills that proved helpful, especially as a parent. Being a single
parent is a never ending indie production that requires long hours
and dedication.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
is the most unusual encounter, conversation, or life event that has
taken place when someone recognized you from one of your films?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I don't have any experience that stands out, other then the most
recent incident. I have kept my acting career private while raising
my children. It was easy at the time, because my children and I used
my ex-spouse's last name. I'm back to my own name now and a librarian
in town just discovered my acting credits while researching films
shot in the area. When she saw me, she lost her composure. I kept
shushing her as she excitedly bombarded me with questions. It was
hilarious our exchange!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>If
you’re willing to share, what have you been doing over the last 30
years since you had a credit?</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Has it been that long since my last IMDb credit? I know I shot my
last commercial in 1993, because my babysitter flaked and I had to
take a six month old to an audition. Anyway, my years away from
Hollywood have been about trying to be the best single parent I could
for my daughters. Maybe because my childhood was so fragmented, it
was important to me to provide a safe, creative, stable home for
them. I didn't feel they should be victims because of the actions of
their parents. Acting is a self-absorbed profession and I didn't want
to subject my children to the demands of the industry. I wanted to be
physically and emotionally available to them during their
developmental years. I chose to work as a realtor because it afforded
my time to be at every field trip and event with my children. I
became an Art Trek parent representative and taught art in my
children's classrooms. I helped my daughters plant vegetable gardens
at their schools. This provided fresh salads to their school lunches.
And I supported my children in their rescue of animals and reptiles.
In retrospect, I wouldn't deprive my children of any of these
experiences. These experiences gave them a sense of empowerment and
made them into conscientious young adults about their community and
the environment.
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Now
that you have indicated your interest in returning to performing,
what kind of roles are you seeking?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'm not sure I want to go back into the industry. I've been spending
time investigating and learning about the changes in Hollywood and
the new media. With the advent of digital technology and live
streaming, so much has changed in the industry. Age has always been a
taboo in the Hollywood and there are few parts for older actors. The
little work available seems to be going to seasoned career actors,
that are guarantee box office. Again, TV is another media that also
caters to the young market.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Here's a couple of enlightening exchanges that I think you will
enjoy. I was in line at grocery checkout and saw a headline that
Sandra Bullock had adopted another child. I mentioned it out loud to
a girl in her early 20's standing behind me. She just looked at me
with a blank stare. Then I realized, "You don't know who she is,
do you?" She just shook her head no. Another incident shortly
after was at Rite Aid on Sunset and Fairfax. The clerks were both in
their early 20's exchanged this dialogue while one of them was
checking me out. Male clerk asks my checker, "Do you think I
should follow Drew Barrymore? I don't know..." My checker says,
"Why??? No, she's so inconsequential." Male clerk mutters,
"But she eats people on the ‘SANTA CLARITA DIET’. That's
kinda cool." I burst out laughing. They realized their absurdity
and laughed with me. Walking out to the parking lot, I started to
think? These actors have more recent credits then me, what would this
make me. Lol...perhaps beyond inconsequential...obsolete. So unless
the right role came along, I may consider it. Meanwhile I will
continue and learn more about the new media and help my youngest
daughter, a filmmaker, work on her projects.
</div>
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</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
will you remember most fondly from your cumulative years in the
movies?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
This is the most reflection I've done, answering these questions. I'm
not one to reminisce. Having been in the industry for so much of my
life, these cumulative experiences are just part of the fabric of who
I am. Of course, we are more then just the culmination of our past
experiences. We have the ability to learn and grow from them. It is
in this reality that I look towards the future, enjoy the present,
and never look back.
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br />Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-56191682499360996132018-06-27T12:34:00.001-07:002018-06-27T12:34:11.793-07:00The Lady Emerges: Carmencristina Moreno - Mary Jane from HICKEY & BOGGS - speaks!<br />
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For the first five minutes, it’s her movie. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fORq5NMHfuw/Wyt0DqXuF3I/AAAAAAAACSA/BD8rqMLca_cimYjpF_6iFJ-r-Tjes9vrwCLcBGAs/s1600/hickey-and_boggs_X01_blu-ray__blu-ray_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="960" height="221" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fORq5NMHfuw/Wyt0DqXuF3I/AAAAAAAACSA/BD8rqMLca_cimYjpF_6iFJ-r-Tjes9vrwCLcBGAs/s400/hickey-and_boggs_X01_blu-ray__blu-ray_.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The steely Chicano
woman in the drab clothes and sunglasses stepping off the train at
Union Station, greeted by a rare Los Angeles rain, sitting in a taxi
while reverentially wiping the water off her battered suitcase and
uttering one of the few lines of dialogue she will have, “Madre
dios, protect us now.” A transition to the early ‘70s hazy L.A.
skyline we know from dozens of depictions, complete with smog alarm.
We will later learn that almost a year has passed since her arrival.
A florist retrieves the preserved suitcase from an earthen hiding
place, literally digging up the root of all the evil we will see in
this movie. And there she is behind the florist, looking for all the
world like just another workaday woman, placing uncirculated $1000
bills into envelopes. It is only when the setting shifts to a dive
bar and two shabby men watching boxing on TV, that we learn the movie
is named HICKEY & BOGGS, and these are our actual protagonists.
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hf0cz7dGjn4/Wyt0x79KqJI/AAAAAAAACSI/JoegoLdie78KCCkxx3pi0kBd5rG1mODKgCLcBGAs/s1600/hickey_and_boggs_blu-ray_title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="437" data-original-width="800" height="217" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hf0cz7dGjn4/Wyt0x79KqJI/AAAAAAAACSI/JoegoLdie78KCCkxx3pi0kBd5rG1mODKgCLcBGAs/s400/hickey_and_boggs_blu-ray_title.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then again, the manner in which Walter Hill’s screenplay and Robert
Culp’s direction reveals information, anytime we see a particular
group of characters, it’s almost as if we have entered a different
movie from their point of view. There’s the movie about the
mobsters trying to recover money from a robbery they sanctioned.
There’s the movie about the scummy criminals eager to get the cash.
There’s the near-silent movie about the “Torpedos,” the hit men
on a single-minded pursuit to find and kill everyone depriving the
mob of their cash. There’s the movie about the L.A. police trying
to break this case, annoyed by these private detectives – one of
them a disgraced former cop – who keep intruding in their
investigation. And the movie of this woman, her husband, and their
children, alternately one step ahead of all these pursuers yet still
over their heads in how to resolve their situation. Even the closing
credits represent this: aside from the main cast of Culp, his partner, and
the characters of immediate significance to them, all the other
parties are grouped in their own headings - “The Chicanos,” “The
Organization,” “The Contract Soldiers,” “The Law, “The
Fences.”</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">But
throughout all these intersecting stories, it is always this woman of
multiple aliases who is steering the narrative. It is her that will
commit the first murder we see. It is her all these competing forces
are seeking, almost all underestimating her intelligence; she may be
derided as “Mary Jane,” “the girl,” “the woman,” “that
bitch,” by these men, but she’s the one that’s outfoxed them
all. It is her that will play the mob against the fences and set up
Hickey and Boggs to either be killed or take the fall. We will never
learn the full story of how and why she does everything, how she
learned to do it, but we get enough hints to know it’s as grim a
tale as the hard look in her face. She didn’t want to be a femme
fatale and a master manipulator, but there’s family to protect and
a deal to make and jobs to do, and she’s going to finish this
matter because she has to. Eventually Boggs, whose toll from pursuing
this case has included the murder of his partner’s wife, tells her
husband his grudging respect:</span></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Evr-QlRZDd4/Wyt1GFxtzOI/AAAAAAAACSU/mUJyvXlWQW8GaSsTa8fpU0oqhQAKDeICQCLcBGAs/s1600/hb_517.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="852" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Evr-QlRZDd4/Wyt1GFxtzOI/AAAAAAAACSU/mUJyvXlWQW8GaSsTa8fpU0oqhQAKDeICQCLcBGAs/s400/hb_517.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“<i>You
still have Mary Jane. She must be a heck of a woman. Killed Farrow
for you ‘cause he wanted a bigger bite. Ran the whole show until
you got out. She’s one hell of a woman. Of course you’ll both be
indicted, but it’s too shaky, they won’t make it stick.
So...maybe you still get home.</i></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The woman has a proper name: it’s Mary Florida Quemando. And the
woman who played her, billed only as “Carmen” in the credits,
generating as much mystery about the real performer as the character,
is Carmencristina Moreno.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ubkThGP5I_o/WyuChnT-yUI/AAAAAAAACT0/MjsuLQ6EbNM51iXcbSAVBzIx9F6ZyQtcACLcBGAs/s1600/morenoimage-000233-1373489188_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="715" height="312" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ubkThGP5I_o/WyuChnT-yUI/AAAAAAAACT0/MjsuLQ6EbNM51iXcbSAVBzIx9F6ZyQtcACLcBGAs/s400/morenoimage-000233-1373489188_1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo courtesy Carmencristina Moreno</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.carmencristina.com/">Carmencristina Moreno</a> comes from an entertainment dynasty. She was born to Luis M. and Carmen A.
Moreno, who performed ranchera music on radio and records from the
‘30s onward as El Dueto de Los Moreno; Luis is credited with
composing hundreds of songs that have been covered into the present.
Carmencristina would write and record music in English and Spanish
for major record labels, and went on to found her own when she balked
at working in an environment hostile to her rich heritage. She was
named a NEA National Heritage Fellow in 2003, the pinnacle of honors
a folk artist can receive. In the present day she still performs her
original music, is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Father-Mexican-Revolution-Carmencristina-Moreno/dp/0615591450">a
published author</a>, and teaches Mexican-American history through
song-and-lecture presentations in California schools.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
There have been a good number of articles about HICKEY & BOGGS,
and a good number of articles about Ms. Moreno, but Moreno has never
previously spoken at length or detail about her experience until now,
when she graciously agreed to answer my emailed questions about her history
and relationship to the film.
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
To
provide context, the production of HICKEY & BOGGS was an
extremely stressful affair.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In
1971, when Walter Hill’s script was optioned by
Warner Bros., Robert
Culp had been humiliated by
the production shutdown and foreclosure of Bernard Girard’s
thriller <a href="http://thenewbev.com/blog/2017/04/a-name-for-evil/">A
NAME FOR EVIL</a> the
year before. EVIL had been
a pet project he previously
told the press was,
“the kind of picture you wait for all your life,”
and during
which,
his third marriage to actress France Nuyen broke up, and
led to his fourth marriage with
supporting player Susan Sullivan. He
and co-star Samantha Eggar were
suing the producers and
investors to obtain
compensation for their
previously deferred salaries.
(The footage
was ultimately bought by Penthouse magazine, re-edited, and dumped
into theatres in 1973.) While
he never stopped working in the interim, the high-profile collapse
affected him deeply; as he remembered it in 2007, “After BOB AND
CAROL, I was hot as a pistol…by the time it was done, I wasn’t
hot as a pistol anymore.” When
WB courted Culp to reunite with his former “I
SPY” co-star for this
project, it was an opportunity to regain his momentum as a bankable
movie star.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
However,
his friend’s participation in the film was obtained on the actor's insistence
that Culp be allowed to direct it.
Culp had previously helmed an
“I SPY” episode and a documentary for TV, but never a feature.
When WB would not approve Culp as director, the duo offered to buy
out WB’s investment and take the script elsewhere, and a
preliminary deal was made with their
series’ location cinematographer-turned producer
Fouad Said to find independent money. A bad bluff by Said with WB
resulted in a higher-than-planned buyout price, and funding ran out
three times, leaving Culp with a tight budget and only 35 days to
shoot. Impediments that Culp withheld from all parties were that
immediately after the planned 35 days, his
marquee co-star was due to
commence filming “THE ELECTRIC COMPANY” for PBS in New York,
meaning there was no flexibility for lost days on his scenes, and two
weeks before shooting was to start, Culp had undergone a double
hernia operation from which he had not fully recovered, but did not
disclose for fear the insurance company would shut down the
production. In short, it is
very likely Culp feared a repeat of what befell A NAME FOR EVIL.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
While Culp presented a sanguine demeanor about recalling this state
of affairs in <a href="http://theconsummateculp.com/2015/10/hickey-boggs-the-aero-theatre-qa-is-back/">a
2007 Q&A at the Aero Theatre</a> in Santa Monica, from the
account offered here by Ms. Moreno, he was clearly under enormous
pressure, and unfortunately, the negativity had a direct effect on
the production, and its lynchpin actress...</div>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JmIXAbJM0RM/Wyt-GLz1LmI/AAAAAAAACTM/Yg8k6l8MBJcKtffoI6vNjK2eRKH6L1TTACLcBGAs/s1600/hbcarmen68594-8486.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JmIXAbJM0RM/Wyt-GLz1LmI/AAAAAAAACTM/Yg8k6l8MBJcKtffoI6vNjK2eRKH6L1TTACLcBGAs/s1600/hbcarmen68594-8486.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>How
did you become involved in HICKEY & BOGGS? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
really don't recall how [Robert Culp] knew about me, except that my
career as a singer/guitarist was "in demand" in those days
in L.A. Mexican-Americanism seemed to be "in" in those
days and I seemed to be the "go to" musical grass-roots
Chicana around town. I couldn't help it. I carried my parents’
Mexican traditional folk music, as well as my modern American music
in English. I was what I considered a true...musical
Mexican-American, and I demonstrated it in many performances. But
then, in those days, I also had friends and acquaintances in the film
industry there in L.A.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So
who knows how Culp found me. But he called ME!
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did
you have any previous interest in movies in particular before you
appeared in the film? Did you have a favorite film or TV show back
then? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
What
little girl doesn't dream of becoming a "movie star"?
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Yes.
I loved "movies" and films and I had a lot of interest in
acting in them since I had been a little girl. Plus, I always had
stories that I made up rolling around in my head. It must have been
because ever since I can remember, I had seen many Mexican musical
movies with my parents as in L.A., they scouted for the latest songs
coming from Mexico to perform in the USA.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Later,
as I was growing up in Fresno, I saw many American movies with my
favorite actresses: Susan Hayward, Deborah Kerr, Doris Day and
others. I wanted to "act" in movies just like they did! Ah,
the unrealistic dreams of a naive poor young Mexican teenager living
in the farmlands of Fresno, California! My parents always encouraged
me to "go to Mexico" to continue my career, but Mexico
seemed "foreign" to me. I was born, raised and educated in
the United States. I didn't want to go to anywhere else
because...<i>here</i>...the USA, was home!</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Anyway,
I would see these actresses on TV and in movies and thought I could
"act" like them.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
On
television, I had a lot of favorite TV shows: <i>"I LOVE LUCY,"</i>
<i>"THE TWILIGHT ZONE,"</i> <i>"THE LORETTA YOUNG
SHOW,"</i> [and] including <i>"I SPY,"</i> to name
just a few shows that I liked to see. Each show presented different
dramas every week with different actors and actresses. And the
stories were compelling and well-written.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As I
grew up, our high school library offered some books about the
different "methods" or styles of drama and of drama classes
and drama coaches in New York and Hollywood. Even certain movie
magazines had articles about "acting". So I wasn't totally
unfamiliar with the process. In fact, when I got into Hollywood, I
studied for a while with different acting coaches in their classes,
but after
a few unpleasant experiences, I became disenchanted with studying
with "Hollywood drama coaches." Besides, the whole process
seemed elementary to me. I was so naive!</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
But
nothing had prepared me for the reality, and I do mean REALITY, of
working as a film actress, which encompasses a myriad of requirements
for working in front of a camera. Height, dress size, skin color and
etc.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
were your feelings about getting cast in such a significant role in
the film? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
was impressed, at first. But the "luster" began to wear off
after the script began to be changed, Plus every time I was called
into Culp's production office, I would overhear the problems they
were having. So much so, that I became "confused" and lost
my focus. Not only did I not know WHAT was happening, I even began to
get worried the movie would never be made.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And
to boot, Culp one day complained to ME that they could not find
another actor tall enough to play my husband! Fearing I would lose
the part or that the project would fall through, I tried to help. I
said to Culp, "I have an older brother who is taller than I am!"
But in wanting to help, not only the movie, myself and help my
brother "break into the business," I forgot that this "male
actor's" part, was to play MY HUSBAND! This was terrible!!!!
Incest? E-e-e-e-ek! What would my parents, friends and relatives say?
But, I didn't mention my concerns to anyone that this bothered me.
Perhaps it was because I thought myself "drama knowledgeable"
enough and strong enough in my acting ability
to not let that fact that he was my brother worry me. After all, it
would only be "acting".</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So,
they called my brother in. And then I worried they wouldn't like him.
And I worried if he was rejected, he would be humiliated and get his
feelings hurt! But I had nothing to worry about. Culp and Cosby LOVED
him, Louis Moreno. His demeanor (very macho) and his handsome stoic
Mexican good looks, made a great impression on them both. Indeed, my
brother, after <span style="font-style: normal;">HICKEY & BOGGS</span>,
went on to play other small parts on other TV shows. Had he lived
long enough, he might have been a more successful actor.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ei1gItzmDks/Wyt8nX6GyII/AAAAAAAACS8/SFtx-u1tQ14VGUGQ7mU_dwvfE7JO0gmigCLcBGAs/s1600/hblouis68597-8486.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ei1gItzmDks/Wyt8nX6GyII/AAAAAAAACS8/SFtx-u1tQ14VGUGQ7mU_dwvfE7JO0gmigCLcBGAs/s1600/hblouis68597-8486.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Unfortunately,
he died in 1989 of lung cancer. The "macho" guy, whose day
job was as a painter for CSUN, drank too much tequila, smoked too
many cigarettes, and even when a doctor told him early on that he had
lung cancer, I guess he didn't believe it and he did not seek
treatment until it was way too late. I think I'm still "angry"
at my only brother for not trying to live longer.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Had
you ever seen any of the main cast in any of their previous TV/movie
work before you acted with them? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
No,
except for Bill Cosby and Robert Culp because of their work in the TV
series "I SPY".
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did
you ever talk to writer Walter Hill about your character, did he give
you any guidance on how to embody her? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
No,
I did not speak to him about it. He never seemed to be available to
me in order to have "that type" of conversation. And Culp
never facilitated any meetings with Hill and I either. Besides, the
script was being changed many times. I know this because I would
overhear bits of conversation to this regard during the times I was
in Culp's office. And I would be there only after being called in. I
would catch glimpses of Mr. Hill and feel sorry for him. He always
looked so beleaguered and worried. I thought it was probably because
he was trying to keep up with the changes to his script.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
was your impression of Robert Culp and his directing style? How did
he counsel you for your scenes? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Let
me share something with you here, Marc. I grew up mainly in Mexican
"show business" and began singing on stage and in many
Mexican cafes and nightclubs; places some people would consider
"dangerous." So early on, I learned to "read people,"
as a defensive mechanism in order to survive and stay out of trouble.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
My
impression of Robert Culp? Unfortunately, as a director, I found he
definitely lacked "people skills." Or maybe Culp should
have replaced me with another much more experienced actress. Or maybe
another actress would have been much more expensive? Or maybe....who
knows? But he was a "hard-headed, stubborn man"! And I
found him unapproachable. He didn't need or ask for any input, LEAST
of all, mine! For instance, he could have made Mary Jane a sister to
the male character. But they had hired a little boy to play the part
of "our" child. [The boy was Robert’s son, Jason Culp]</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
On
top of all the hassles Culp was having, I felt it was too late to
suggest anything. He didn't need THIS. But it would have freed me up
a lot. Yet, in retrospect, he couldn't have made them sister and
brother! It would have changed the "thrust" of the story.
So, I did not feel free to suggest any changes or anything like that.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Edm__YItCQ/WyuAVduhF1I/AAAAAAAACTg/sNKJTH0oRSsKuhqU-5f67rQxLnlhHhfoQCLcBGAs/s1600/hbScreenshot%2B%25281657%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Edm__YItCQ/WyuAVduhF1I/AAAAAAAACTg/sNKJTH0oRSsKuhqU-5f67rQxLnlhHhfoQCLcBGAs/s400/hbScreenshot%2B%25281657%2529.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then,
as filming began, I started to feel his hostility towards me. I think
now he must have hated my inexperience, or perhaps...I don't know.
(Sexism? Racism?) Anyway, I stayed out of his way.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
ask myself now that perhaps his attitude was was hard because he was
feeling "overwhelmed" by what he'd taken on? He was the
"star" of the film. And he had to protect that! Plus, he
had to protect his "vision" of the story he was trying to
tell on film. And there I was...!
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Did
he "counsel" me on my part? Only ONCE, during filming and
in a brief and private moment when out of the blue, he asked me to
join him for lunch. We got in his car and drove almost in silence.
Then he said something about "method acting." After which,
he remarked with a smirk, "There! I've given you your first
acting lesson!" Out of respect, I didn't reply. But my first
thought was, "What a jerk!"
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It
was there that I felt he and I were beginning to hate each other! And
his cold and hostile attitude towards me began to erode any
confidence I might have felt for the part. I ended up not "acting",
but rather, "reacting" to the instructions he would give me
before each scene! That's the only way it could have been done
because by that time, there was no script (that I knew of), to follow
or digest. And unfortunately, my "wooden performance" on
film shows it. I hate it and am STILL VERY embarrassed by it. I could
have done better. But like Culp, I too, felt overwhelmed by
circumstances.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TP7BIuNr-is/Wyt9SmfnDBI/AAAAAAAACTE/EosjEP-MgOExqkhOkYiUL_fNOXGKy7AeQCLcBGAs/s1600/hbScreenshot%2B%25281689%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TP7BIuNr-is/Wyt9SmfnDBI/AAAAAAAACTE/EosjEP-MgOExqkhOkYiUL_fNOXGKy7AeQCLcBGAs/s400/hbScreenshot%2B%25281689%2529.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Was
it always intended by Hill and/or Culp that she would be near-mute
throughout the film?</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
don't know what their real intentions were. As I state before, there
was a script at first, but then even during filming, Culp was giving
everyone updates of changes. He had set up a storyboard there on the
set. Being inexperienced in film work, I suppose that is done on
other films too. But to me, it seemed strange and strained to do that
at the last minute.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>How
did the single-name "Carmen" billing come about in the
credits? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
There
are many places and instances in American show business where having
a Hispanic surname was, and sometimes still is, not commercially
viable. So I didn't use it then. But I sure use it now!
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
sorts of things did you do in creating your performance? Did you
study other actors, other movies? Did you lean on personal
experience? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
What
was there to do or study? What was to prepare?
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
From
what I recall, when I first read the script, I felt I knew who the
character was and what a negative character she was supposed to be. I
felt I knew how to play "her". But as the script changed
and Culp's "forceful" instructions prevailed, I think I
became personally intimidated. Intimidated!!! I lost my personal
voice and thinking ability. Nothing I did in my performance seemed to
please him. In the end, as I write above: I didn't "act," I
ended up [reacting]...to his instructions!!! Or maybe Culp hated me
because I was just a tender inexperienced "wanna-be"
actress." Or perhaps, after thinking about it, it leads me to
believe the Director was just using my "off-camera"
professional show-business persona
(my Chicanismo) to tell HIS vision of the story, his negative
personal racial feelings.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As
it turned out, according to ending credits, perhaps my feelings about
his hostility was correct. Check out the closing credits: Blacks -
listed separately, Chicanos - listed separately, Whites - separately.
We're all segregated. There's no room for respect or acknowledgment
of individual artistic abilities there! But oh well...that's show
biz...!
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
was your impression of the stunt men playing "The Torpedoes"
- Fatboy (Matt Bennett), Monte (Bill Hickman), and Nick (Tom
Signorelli)? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
did not fraternize with them. It has been and still is, my experience
that many times, a man mistakes my "friendliness" for a
"come on." So I stay away from a lot of people I don't have
to interact with.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>When
some of the lesser-known supporting cast became marquee names later,
were you surprised or did you anticipate they had that potential back
then? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
don't recall. The only name or person I recognized on set was Bill
Cosby. And even then, I was not on close personal terms with him.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>There
have been stories about much more footage being shot but not used. Is
this true? Were you featured in any of those scenes, and if so, what
sorts of things would have happened in them? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
don't know about additional footage that was shot and not used.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
But
I do know that at one point, the Director (Culp) wanted to shoot a
silhouette of a hooker putting on her bra, and he told ME [to] take
off my blouse and bra so they could film my silhouette putting on my
bra. But I wasn't about to expose my large breasts to the cast and
crew! I am not that type of actress. Besides, it was not in the
script that I had agreed to do. So I refused to do it. Of course he
wasn't happy about that either! Nudity or partial nudity was never
mentioned in my contract. That is a "line" I definitely
would not have crossed! Part or no film part. Besides, asking to do
that, seemed to me like he was trying to "punish" me.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So
after I refused, they shot him throwing money on top of a ratty mink
coat, and it's my hand that takes the money and the coat.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NJrLz4EKB6E/Wyt2A3I-EKI/AAAAAAAACSc/Iqb5drTXK-wHQKDB_fxhhrS7-Tpo3V7sgCLcBGAs/s1600/hb_039.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="852" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NJrLz4EKB6E/Wyt2A3I-EKI/AAAAAAAACSc/Iqb5drTXK-wHQKDB_fxhhrS7-Tpo3V7sgCLcBGAs/s400/hb_039.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
was it like on the set? Did you get along particularly well with
anyone on the cast or crew? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
kept largely to myself with my "nose in a book" most of the
time. I was feeling like an inept fool by then and wasn't feeling
"friendly" towards anyone by that point...and no one was
friendly with me either!
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Were
there any fun moments during shooting or off the set? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sadly,
I don't recall "having fun" with anyone there. I was
totally miserable. Perhaps I "over thought" everything!
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Were
there any upsetting moments during shooting or off the set?</i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Early
on in the filming, I found I had to watch out for my own safety.
There was a gun where my character shoots someone through a screen
door, a gun that did operate properly and the "bullet" kept
getting stuck between the gun barrel and the chamber. A gun explosion
could have blown my hand off!</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
During
filming on the beach the scene called for me to be flying an
airplane, which they shot with the plane on the ground or with the
plane's door as a backdrop while I was flown in a helicopter. But in
this one shot, while in the airplane was on the ground, the propeller
was rotating and while I was in the plane's cabin, Culp whispered
loudly to me to "gun it" so that the plane would take off!
I don't know the first thing about flying a plane, so I didn't!
Shortly afterwards, it turned out that the wing nuts were not
tightened down on the wings, and the wings were being held to the
fuselage loosely only by the bolts! That was upsetting to me! What
the heck was this guy thinking? That scared the heck outta me. I had
to watch out "for this guy," I thought! And of course, I
didn't say anything to anyone about it then either.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did
you learn anything from the experience that helped you later in life,
in any kind of situation that is not necessarily artistic? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
This
filming experience was <b>catastrophic</b> for me as an aspiring
actress. But it taught me a good lesson, which I now choose to keep
to myself. But I was glad when filming was over.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
was the reaction of you and your friends when HICKEY & BOGGS was
released? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
To
paraphrase Janis Ian's song: "[In] debentures of quality and
dubious integrity, their small-town eyes will gape at you in dull
surprise when payment due, exceeds accounts received."
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
kind of attention, if any, did you experience from the film, and did
you find it pleasant or unpleasant? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
pleasant or unpleasantness part depended on what type of attention
was being paid to me, and by whom. You must know what I mean.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
is the most unusual encounter, conversation, or life event that has
taken place when someone found out you were in HICKEY & BOGGS? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Shortly
after doing HICKEY & BOGGS, I fell into a deep depression that I
couldn't overcome. It took me YEARS to emerge from it!
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
But
thinking back, on one memorable evening, as I and my 3 sons toured
the Griffith Park Observatory, there was another Mexican-American
lady with her own 3 children, who recognized me and approached me,
wanting to shake my hand and proudly telling her sons that "[She]
was the lady who was in 'that' movie!"
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In
view of the fact that my movie part was that of a "lying
murderous thief whore" (though one never heard the "lying"
dialogue), and though I wasn't exactly proud of having played that
part, what I was REALLY ashamed of was feeling that I had done such a
bad job of it. And to me, it shows!!! OMG! I was so stiff and wooden!
No wonder they all hated me. I hated me too!!! Since then, I had
auditioned for other parts, and gotten a few. But my heart is just
not in acting anymore. What do I know?</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did
you maintain any further contact with anyone else involved in the
film? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
No,
and didn't want to either!
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Have
you watched the film recently? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Not
recently, no. I think I watched a DVD of it again about 5 or 7 years
ago.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Do
you think the film plays differently now years after its release than
when it first came out? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
have found that one has to watch it several times in order to find
its basic story-line or "appreciate" the story Culp was
trying to convey, though I still don't know why...anyone...would be
interested in the story.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What
will you remember most positively and/or most negatively from being
in this movie? </i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
positive is that it made me aware of my lack of drama training and
thereby my limitations as an "actress" or "actor".
Being an "actor" really requires devotion and dedication.
If I ever try to "act" in a film again, I will definitely
study and research a lot more, so that I will be able to feel free to
explore the character and be quick enough to "own" the
part. The negative side, is that during this filming process, I
allowed myself to be BULLIED and INTIMIDATED out of believing in
myself or feeling so oppressed. I had felt intimidated to the point
that I lost my nerve! That's disastrous for a performer, whether on
film or wherever.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So
there you are, Marc. I still feel I failed them all in this film and
they ended up hating me. And for a long time, I hated me too! Last
year, I was trying to find snippets or photos of myself in this film
to construct some promo stuff I was working on, and I couldn't find
anything of my image, save one photo of a woman (me) with dark
glasses and a hood over her hair. No one else would have recognized
that woman as being me. But maybe it's a good thing!
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Thank
you again for your interest in my "performance" in this
film, Marc. I wish you the best of good luck.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Yours
sincerely,
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Carmencristina
Moreno</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a6fgnf5rTLs/WyuBOe9t4_I/AAAAAAAACTo/BXht4hxsphMbAjfELlq7lJbvSrW3UOY2QCLcBGAs/s1600/morenocrop1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a6fgnf5rTLs/WyuBOe9t4_I/AAAAAAAACTo/BXht4hxsphMbAjfELlq7lJbvSrW3UOY2QCLcBGAs/s400/morenocrop1.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo courtesy of <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/10341616/the-chicana-first-lady-of-song">Howard Watkins and KQED</a></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
My
deepest thanks to Ms. Moreno for revisiting a less-than-pleasant
memory with such strength and candor. Her testimony has only
intensified my respect for her performance, and I hope it does the
same for you. May it inspire all of you to seek out her larger legacy
of creative activity as well.</div>
<br />Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-79972779371080632062018-06-21T12:29:00.000-07:002018-06-21T12:29:08.780-07:00The Lady Emerges: Cynthia Davis - Brenda from COOLEY HIGH - speaks!If you were to approach one of the devoted fans of Michael Schultz and Eric Monte's enduring 1975 coming-of-age comedy/drama COOLEY HIGH, and ask them what are the Top Five things they remember and love most about the film, you'll likely hear about Preach and Cochise, the relatable moments of juvenile hijinks, the parade of Motown hits, the poignant finale...and Brenda.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Brenda was the smart girl with plans, and discipline to make them happen. Brenda didn't have time for your foolishness. Brenda was naturally pretty but never played that card or called attention to it because that wasn't a matter of substance. Brenda probably never saw Fellini's I VITELLONI, but she instinctively knew that of her peer group at school, there were the goofs that were never leaving the neighborhood, and she was not going to be in that group. Brenda had her eyes on the prize.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LH3uJrl39pg/WYgHKSnOpFI/AAAAAAAACKw/1sE5AsVCLj8NhqCDDZ1hgn88W-xiz0xdgCLcBGAs/s1600/preview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="666" height="215" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LH3uJrl39pg/WYgHKSnOpFI/AAAAAAAACKw/1sE5AsVCLj8NhqCDDZ1hgn88W-xiz0xdgCLcBGAs/s400/preview.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
That's why it was special when Preach dropped the cornball jokes, got real with her about his love of art and poetry, and earned her attention. That's why it was romantic when they became a real couple. That's why it hurt harder when he got stupid with her. That's why the tea tasted so good when she got back at him. And for as much as we would have loved to see what could have been, why it was better that at the end of it all, Brenda went her own way.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qXfc4mwJw2I/WYgGEU3wKtI/AAAAAAAACKk/QmD7ix2mUAcOxbRdfLuQ100xoltHScOtgCLcBGAs/s1600/Cooley%2BHigh%2B25.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qXfc4mwJw2I/WYgGEU3wKtI/AAAAAAAACKk/QmD7ix2mUAcOxbRdfLuQ100xoltHScOtgCLcBGAs/s400/Cooley%2BHigh%2B25.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Cynthia Davis made one film before she was old enough to vote, and never made another. She went back into private life and the quiet milestones of career, marriage, and family, with what appear to be few regrets. But in the 40+ years since the release of COOLEY HIGH, her performance as Brenda has continued to melt the hearts of millions, <a href="https://neverdateawriter.com/2014/04/03/a-mystery-in-cabrini-green/">baffle them</a> as to why she didn't do more films, and to leave them <a href="http://mooninthegutter.blogspot.com/2012/12/31-performances-ripe-for-rediscovery-31.html">wishing for more</a>.<br />
<br />
To date, Davis has never been interviewed at length about her experience on the film. She has never participated in the multiple anniversary reunion shows or retrospective articles that have taken place as it has ascended into the cultural canon. As such, her absence, along with lazy googling from other would-be researchers, have fed an erroneous rumor that she had passed on long ago. Despite the efforts of family and friends posting on message boards, social media, and blogs to assure fans she is alive and healthy, this error has been perpetuated, including in a major TV documentary about the film.<br />
<br />
Thanks to the help of one of those proud family members, I was able to make contact with Ms. Davis, who graciously agreed to answer my questions about her history and relationship to COOLEY HIGH. To demonstrate how generous she was in this interaction, allow me a brief sidebar...<br />
<br />
I work with limited technological abilities. I do not own a smartphone, I do not have a webcam or Skype capability, even my attempts at using an old-fashioned landline phone-tap and a tape recorder have failed. So when I am doing interviews on my own without the backing of a podcast or other deeper-pocketed client, my preferred method is to send questions via email, receive the answers, and if merited, do a second round from there. (And if you're about to put a comment below that begins with "Why don't you..." or "Have you tried...", <b>don't. </b>Just don't.)<br />
<br />
After our initial introductions and decision to proceed, Ms. Davis' computer expired, leaving her unable to engage in long-form email exchanges.<br />
<br />
Undeterred, she took the time to hand-write, in lovely penmanship, her replies to my questions, and send them to me via the U.S. Mail.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wslJwPUdpoQ/WYoQlcO3zwI/AAAAAAAACMY/i5jey3WK7HsNeBDGya5YSKYvTTs77Mt1QCLcBGAs/s1600/CynthiaDavisgreet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1047" data-original-width="787" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wslJwPUdpoQ/WYoQlcO3zwI/AAAAAAAACMY/i5jey3WK7HsNeBDGya5YSKYvTTs77Mt1QCLcBGAs/s400/CynthiaDavisgreet.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<br />
I took the liberty of making some spelling corrections, but preserved her emoticons and lol's.<br />
<br />
After our initial exchange, I had wanted to do some follow-up questions, to expand upon some of her replies and also delve into observations we discussed in private exchanges. Unfortunately, a combination of both technical and health issues did not allow this to happen, and she encouraged me to go forward with what we already had.<br />
<br />
Thus, this is hardly a complete portrait of her and her short window of stardom, but it is a warmly felt and honest one, and I feel lucky to share it.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RWZhwwxaV3o/WYoY9CfPWpI/AAAAAAAACM0/EONMedYEVOUsbchSxLaegMP944H6jEDbQCLcBGAs/s1600/CDheadshot2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RWZhwwxaV3o/WYoY9CfPWpI/AAAAAAAACM0/EONMedYEVOUsbchSxLaegMP944H6jEDbQCLcBGAs/s640/CDheadshot2.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo courtesy of Cynthia Davis and Lisa James</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>How did you
become involved in COOLEY HIGH? </i>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
was friends with man who told me he knew Michael Schultz. We went to
a place on the North side of Chicago. I walked into a room that was
filled with actresses waiting to audition. I was escorted past the
young women and asked to sit and read a line from the movie. The line
was, “A bet. A bet. I’m nothing but a lousy dollar bet!” I
asked if I could say “cheap” instead of “lousy.” I was told
yes. I red the line. They filmed it.<br />
<br />
One week later I got
a phone call and I as told that I got the part. :)</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did you have any
previous interest in the arts in general, or movies in particular,
before you appeared in the film? </i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
was a student at Dunbar Vocational High School. My major was
commercial art. I loved to draw and paint. I still do.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did you have a favorite film or TV show back then?</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Back
then the [movies] I would watch would be the old movies. Bing Crosby,
Frank Sinatra, “The Rat Pack.” TV: "DICK VAN DYKE," "BEWITCHED," "I DREAM OF JEANNIE," "COMBAT," "HOGAN'S HEROES," etc.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What were your
feelings about getting cast in such a significant role in the film?</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
was happy that I was chosen. However, I really didn’t realize what
that meant. I didn’t understand that magnitude and that it would
one day be a classic and people would tout and love it so. I didn’t
have access to the internet for a long time. I started hearing from
my friends and family, “Oh, they’re playing your movie on channel
such-and-such,” “Oh, Sinbad wants to find you,” “Oh, look at
what the regular fans are saying about you (good and bad).”</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-03MlUWx42Us/WYgLp0MS6rI/AAAAAAAACK8/7ZFTrfA-ZX4HI8-lUt4otAxBOmluGF8ggCLcBGAs/s1600/09-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-03MlUWx42Us/WYgLp0MS6rI/AAAAAAAACK8/7ZFTrfA-ZX4HI8-lUt4otAxBOmluGF8ggCLcBGAs/s400/09-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Had you ever seen
any of the main stars (Glynn Turman, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Garrett
Morris) in any of their previous TV/movie work before you acted with
them?</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
No,
I didn’t know about their other work and I had no clue.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did you ever talk
to writer Eric Monte about your character, did he give you any
guidance on how to embody her?</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
don’t remember if and when I met with Monte.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
No
one guided me on embodying Brenda. I do remember being told what line
to say, where to stand, stuff like that.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What sorts of
things did you do in creating your performance? </i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
There
was no method to my madness. </div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RYvCGJqGuvQ/WYgOEuYLnsI/AAAAAAAACLU/4IGBasRmQQAqhlV5MR6FmHFwG5qAHeDGwCLcBGAs/s1600/cooleyhighbr-06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RYvCGJqGuvQ/WYgOEuYLnsI/AAAAAAAACLU/4IGBasRmQQAqhlV5MR6FmHFwG5qAHeDGwCLcBGAs/s400/cooleyhighbr-06.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did you study other actors, other movies? Did you lean on personal experience?</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
No, I didn’t study any actors. As I’ve
said, I wasn’t an actress. I was just a girl who lived and went to
school in Chicago. I know I heard I was typecast:<br />
- light skin</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
-
shorter than Glynn</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
-
a 17 year old student (I’m not sure how old Glynn was at the time)
[He was 28]</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
-
They could get me for SAG minimum</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
-
They didn’t have to pay me per diem because I was from Chicago</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
-
Back then I remember saying that I was ornery and that’s what the
character called for I suppose.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
My
dad said I was just a pretty face, nothing more, nothing less.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
hope I wasn’t just another pretty face. I am my own person. I pray
I wasn’t just a face. :(</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What was your
impression of Michael Schultz and his directing style?</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
thought Michael was a very nice man. I thought his wife Gloria was
absolutely stunning. She was a breathtaking beauty. She was
definitely <b>not</b> just another pretty face. She was a striking
beauty.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-spa0B8K2pVw/WYgRMeesMfI/AAAAAAAACLs/njF4JFTCuygZcoT8LOyjfav3dk26Ta2aQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-7.26.39-PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="391" data-original-width="517" height="302" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-spa0B8K2pVw/WYgRMeesMfI/AAAAAAAACLs/njF4JFTCuygZcoT8LOyjfav3dk26Ta2aQCLcBGAs/s400/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-7.26.39-PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What was it like
on the set? Did you get along with the leads and the other players? </i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
My
memory of the set was, one, that I was fascinated with how organized [it
was] in the midst of chaos. It just seemed so planned. They didn’t
waste, not one moment. And then the next thing I remember was someone
saying that I didn’t need to return to set. My part was done. I
kinda felt sad as I walked away. I went to a bus stop and took a bus
home.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I’d
say I got along well with everyone. I never had any problems.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Were there any fun moments during shooting or off the set?</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Fun
moments:<br />
<br />
1 – I remember while waiting in the trailer for
my hair, make-up, and wardrobe to be done. There were 2 young women
waiting for make-up. I asked if they would let me do their make-up
for them and I did. :)</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
2
– I enjoyed the school hallway scene when I slammed the locker door
in Glynn’s face. That was his idea. I just remember saying I didn’t
want to hurt him but he insisted I do it. That was such a funny
scene.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
3
– In the cafe scene where I was first was introduced into the
movie. I loved in watching the movie the scene where I want to get to
the washroom. I spoke to [Lawrence]. I thought he was such a nice
person. The part when I went to tell Martha they were gambling in
back, what I really said to her in a whisper was, “They don’t
know I can’t see a thing without my glasses.”</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
True
story. I really can only see a blur of anything outside of 3” in
front of my face. I’m nearsighted. You think I’m joking, lol. No,
it’s true.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ofEbLNoRLIo/WYgMhvcnz9I/AAAAAAAACLE/oQUNW8F8tQ42oZhWVtNDnTggKTJxqJPxwCLcBGAs/s1600/08_Cooley-High_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="600" height="262" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ofEbLNoRLIo/WYgMhvcnz9I/AAAAAAAACLE/oQUNW8F8tQ42oZhWVtNDnTggKTJxqJPxwCLcBGAs/s400/08_Cooley-High_600.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Cast photo: Cynthia, top left, wearing her glasses.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
4
– It puts me in mind of the scene on the train tracks and I don’t
think they used the scene in the movie. I think it might have ended
up on the cutting room floor. Glynn and I were arm and arm walking
down the rails and tracks. I know we were not miked. I said to him
that he would have to help me because I said I can’t see a thing
without my glasses. So yes, the whole film I couldn’t see. Is that
funny or what, lol!</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UjaWCKsFkjQ/WYgNQIGOJoI/AAAAAAAACLM/a_-mweUpVXAxJ_hrNOQuYYnXXqX1a63VACLcBGAs/s1600/tumblr_lte0bmu8yO1qjbsoho1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="752" data-original-width="1000" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UjaWCKsFkjQ/WYgNQIGOJoI/AAAAAAAACLM/a_-mweUpVXAxJ_hrNOQuYYnXXqX1a63VACLcBGAs/s400/tumblr_lte0bmu8yO1qjbsoho1_1280.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo courtesy of <a href="http://chicagoscreenshots.com/tagged/Cooley-High">Chicago Screenshots tumblr</a></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
5
– The funeral scene, glancing right and left. One blur to the next
looking for Preach. They even wanted me to drive the car I got into
at the funeral ‘til I told them I don’t have a license and I
can’t see, lol. They actually wanted me to drive.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did you learn
anything from the experience that helped you later in life, in any
kind of field or moment that is not necessarily artistic?</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Not
to be so naive. However, there were a lot of mistakes I made in
trusting people; I’d rather not elaborate. You give power away when
you let people rent space in your brain. Especially people who don’t
have your best interests in mind.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did this make you
interested in pursuing further creative activity, and if so, what
sorts of things did you do?</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
wouldn’t have turned any work down as far as acting goes. I was
offered a part in MANDINGO but it didn’t work out.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What was the
reaction of you and your friends when COOLEY HIGH became a hit?</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
was proud that I was a part of the movie. Mom and dad, my brother
Eric, my sisters Lisa and Norma would tell me that people would refer
to them as the mother of the girl who starred in COOLEY HIGH; the
brother of...etc. They no longer referred to them by their names for
a long time, lol. People would call, excited when it would be aired
on TV.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cPW5ebRkCmQ/WYgXP_Wuf4I/AAAAAAAACMA/pG1NC1GK6Z07_o0FDsdMZP4sKpgstFFzQCLcBGAs/s1600/statelakelarge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="444" data-original-width="640" height="277" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cPW5ebRkCmQ/WYgXP_Wuf4I/AAAAAAAACMA/pG1NC1GK6Z07_o0FDsdMZP4sKpgstFFzQCLcBGAs/s400/statelakelarge.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">1980 photo credit Mike Tuggle., image courtesy of <a href="http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/348">Cinema Treasures</a></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What kind of
attention, if any, did you experience from the film, and did you find
it pleasant or unpleasant?</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
night of the premiere at the State movie theatre (I think that was
the name) [The film premiered at Chicago's State-Lake Theatre on State St.,
now the ABC/WLS Building], I remember being asked for my autograph. I
would write, “To you and yours, Brenda, Cooley High.” Lots of
lights and people.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Remarks
on the internet, some good, some bad, everyone’s entitled to their
opinion.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What is the most
unusual encounter, conversation, or life event that has taken place
when someone found out you were in COOLEY HIGH?</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Some
people get excited. Some don’t believe that it’s me.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Did you maintain
any further contact with anyone else involved in the film?</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
No
one said anything about keeping in touch, and so I wasn’t able to
maintain or further friendships.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nbrkt2uWHsQ/WYgQxIfDxvI/AAAAAAAACLo/WEfkPv_02noTCZlC2tAs0FWgaNiKNrZYACLcBGAs/s1600/tumblr_lte0633Y2M1qjbsoho1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="748" data-original-width="1000" height="298" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nbrkt2uWHsQ/WYgQxIfDxvI/AAAAAAAACLo/WEfkPv_02noTCZlC2tAs0FWgaNiKNrZYACLcBGAs/s400/tumblr_lte0633Y2M1qjbsoho1_1280.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo courtesy of <a href="http://chicagoscreenshots.com/tagged/Cooley-High">Chicago Screenshots tumblr</a></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Why do you think
COOLEY HIGH has remained popular for 40 years after its release?</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I
know there were stereotypes in the movie, but for me I saw beyond the
label “blaxploitation”. I saw the innocence of a group of young
people making their way in life. The projects were a battle ground.
People identified with the experience. A real story. Eric Monte’s
true life experience. I grew up on the south side of Chicago, so a
lot of what Mr. Monte experienced I was exposed to and more. I admire
his truth. Truth, that’s what makes it a classic, it’s real.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Would you ever
like to work on another film again?</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
That’s
a hard question. One part of me wants the fans to remember me as
eternally 17 and pretty. Now I’m 60 soon, grey hair, wrinkled, and
unattractive. I doubt there is a market for an old lady, lol.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>What will you
remember most fondly from being in this movie?</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
My
youth, and meeting all the wonderful actors.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OvtnPvdgZyA/WYgO7nTrkTI/AAAAAAAACLc/p3eyKn4G0aUWAnHgI2EEO9J1j6EYJT7zgCLcBGAs/s1600/tumblr_lsxgx4rXbW1qj9b75o1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="535" height="318" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OvtnPvdgZyA/WYgO7nTrkTI/AAAAAAAACLc/p3eyKn4G0aUWAnHgI2EEO9J1j6EYJT7zgCLcBGAs/s400/tumblr_lsxgx4rXbW1qj9b75o1_1280.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Just
want to add a couple of things that people don’t know.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IhskwEzaeZw/WYgXrjRPWEI/AAAAAAAACME/0XYaQE1NjZo6baX61GzcmGoF0AjkgduBwCLcBGAs/s1600/Brendaonbus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="667" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IhskwEzaeZw/WYgXrjRPWEI/AAAAAAAACME/0XYaQE1NjZo6baX61GzcmGoF0AjkgduBwCLcBGAs/s400/Brendaonbus.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In
the opening scene when the boys jump on the back of the bus. If you
look into the glass, you’ll see me sitting on the bus.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wD5tyRbMFCU/WYgRhq6qcpI/AAAAAAAACLw/o3F0Qop3i6ogEHrBft4XEgxvmXyaTo7pgCLcBGAs/s1600/08-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wD5tyRbMFCU/WYgRhq6qcpI/AAAAAAAACLw/o3F0Qop3i6ogEHrBft4XEgxvmXyaTo7pgCLcBGAs/s400/08-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
On
my way up the stairs to do the love scene, a black lady asked me if I
knew I could ask for a “closed set.” That means only the
essential people could be in the room when it was being filmed. I
wish I could thank her for that.</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0nOLOM4MKCA/WYoX7FAVOUI/AAAAAAAACMo/4Vqv-PLAhmo-Vth5b_wUo1jsQ30WueG7gCLcBGAs/s1600/CDheadshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="969" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0nOLOM4MKCA/WYoX7FAVOUI/AAAAAAAACMo/4Vqv-PLAhmo-Vth5b_wUo1jsQ30WueG7gCLcBGAs/s640/CDheadshot.jpg" width="385" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo courtesy of Cynthia Davis and Lisa James</span></div>
<br />
My deepest thanks to Ms. Davis for being willing to tell me her story, above and beyond the normal process of what is accepted today as regular engagement. Go watch COOLEY HIGH again.<br />
<br />
<br />Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com129tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-7082970260747092702017-12-25T08:52:00.005-08:002017-12-25T08:52:51.347-08:00It Won't Turn Green, Damn You Seventeen2015 kicked my ass. 2016 kicked <b>everybody's</b> ass. 2017
discovered our collective asses were numb from all the kicking, so a
series of sucker punches, rope burns, paper cuts, and other attacks
ensued. But still we stand, maybe more flecked with red than green today, with wobbly knees, but fully upright.<br />
<br />
My experience has been that it's better not to write at length in the midst of an existential crisis - there's too many opportunities for narcissism, bathos, purple prose, and in general, putting something into print that I will regret later. As written, <a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/17/remain-silent/">NOT by Abraham Lincoln or Mark Twain</a> but by Maurice Switzer, it is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.<br />
<br />
So yeah, as has been the pattern over these years of attrition, I didn't see enough movies, especially the ones that would actually benefit from my elevation, thus this list carries an asterisk and a side-eye from the cineastes that matter. Nevertheless, The Top 13 of 2017* (your mileage may vary):<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>13. I, TONYA</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zyiiUk_gsqo/Wjuwl3G9IEI/AAAAAAAACNw/OIeENeyMejkk9WfD2u90vJRORw48GnqDQCLcBGAs/s1600/iTonyacig.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="222" data-original-width="540" height="162" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zyiiUk_gsqo/Wjuwl3G9IEI/AAAAAAAACNw/OIeENeyMejkk9WfD2u90vJRORw48GnqDQCLcBGAs/s400/iTonyacig.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>12. SLEIGHT</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mRtOlpMNycc/WjuxED3HyMI/AAAAAAAACN4/y0DE3uH-sIogl_vjmawbbB0cuJe-jm4agCLcBGAs/s1600/Sleight-2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1200" height="166" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mRtOlpMNycc/WjuxED3HyMI/AAAAAAAACN4/y0DE3uH-sIogl_vjmawbbB0cuJe-jm4agCLcBGAs/s400/Sleight-2017.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>11. DUNKIRK</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j3_h6qaoi4Y/WjuxiSx58AI/AAAAAAAACOE/JOIEJxekYUUguL_hPVsOHgxeHA5Jh7VNACLcBGAs/s1600/DunkirkBeach-700.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="700" height="165" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j3_h6qaoi4Y/WjuxiSx58AI/AAAAAAAACOE/JOIEJxekYUUguL_hPVsOHgxeHA5Jh7VNACLcBGAs/s400/DunkirkBeach-700.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>10. BABY DRIVER</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0KHQThqigwk/WjuyK-6HunI/AAAAAAAACOQ/l6rMks8o39IiOl-sqYhQcBo4GYR0W3TagCLcBGAs/s1600/baby%252Bdriver%252Bfilm%252Bipod%252Bmusic%252Bplaying%252Bscreenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="1000" height="170" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0KHQThqigwk/WjuyK-6HunI/AAAAAAAACOQ/l6rMks8o39IiOl-sqYhQcBo4GYR0W3TagCLcBGAs/s400/baby%252Bdriver%252Bfilm%252Bipod%252Bmusic%252Bplaying%252Bscreenshot.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>9. PROFESSOR MARSTON AND THE WONDER WOMEN</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7-btZyvOQZs/Wjuya3i-saI/AAAAAAAACOU/gTVD8wkWEggnlRb56uAh-yb9JsgavE6TACLcBGAs/s1600/professor-marston-review-ew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="210" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7-btZyvOQZs/Wjuya3i-saI/AAAAAAAACOU/gTVD8wkWEggnlRb56uAh-yb9JsgavE6TACLcBGAs/s400/professor-marston-review-ew.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>8. THE SHAPE OF WATER</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wdwQEdMr4Y0/WjuynQHbcpI/AAAAAAAACOY/GdJoMnMq3Xkb51pDJaCYaVbFhhaM1n5owCLcBGAs/s1600/shapeofwaterrecordplayer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="223" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wdwQEdMr4Y0/WjuynQHbcpI/AAAAAAAACOY/GdJoMnMq3Xkb51pDJaCYaVbFhhaM1n5owCLcBGAs/s400/shapeofwaterrecordplayer.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>7. mother!</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-37Tk8pI0C4o/Wjuy0KwGwTI/AAAAAAAACOg/EExLZsEuaegnVBquTlyQJo3qZwmxI0G0gCLcBGAs/s1600/mother-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="424" data-original-width="780" height="216" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-37Tk8pI0C4o/Wjuy0KwGwTI/AAAAAAAACOg/EExLZsEuaegnVBquTlyQJo3qZwmxI0G0gCLcBGAs/s400/mother-2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>6. LADY BIRD</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y-mY_7Qm7CI/WjuzCDkVnlI/AAAAAAAACOk/kf7Iim216TQRET5mOHibddpxTPCiUyICACLcBGAs/s1600/lady-bird-trailer.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="1440" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y-mY_7Qm7CI/WjuzCDkVnlI/AAAAAAAACOk/kf7Iim216TQRET5mOHibddpxTPCiUyICACLcBGAs/s400/lady-bird-trailer.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>5. THE FLORIDA PROJECT</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HOOkh5ukttQ/WjuzPYCOgPI/AAAAAAAACOo/vn452tz4AHU_NfN3dBHAw5bLMktTn-tYwCLcBGAs/s1600/floridaproject_Hero.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="1180" height="141" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HOOkh5ukttQ/WjuzPYCOgPI/AAAAAAAACOo/vn452tz4AHU_NfN3dBHAw5bLMktTn-tYwCLcBGAs/s400/floridaproject_Hero.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>4. GET OUT</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jN6qeSPVWV8/Wjuzd3if0jI/AAAAAAAACOw/aSrdjW7Q-Zk7v1H51VwyqycCVMD5HlZogCLcBGAs/s1600/getouticedtea.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="1600" height="162" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jN6qeSPVWV8/Wjuzd3if0jI/AAAAAAAACOw/aSrdjW7Q-Zk7v1H51VwyqycCVMD5HlZogCLcBGAs/s400/getouticedtea.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b>
<b>3. NOCTURAMA</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NhAH9iKgbfI/WkAo_iNdhFI/AAAAAAAACPc/C3WU9BWp3EsuEr9cQ567Vl5c-fw_G4tCwCLcBGAs/s1600/nocturama1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1090" height="182" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NhAH9iKgbfI/WkAo_iNdhFI/AAAAAAAACPc/C3WU9BWp3EsuEr9cQ567Vl5c-fw_G4tCwCLcBGAs/s400/nocturama1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>2. PHANTOM THREAD</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gyhE2n4QCw0/Wjuzq0-5u5I/AAAAAAAACO0/au7HjpRcWAoxTeIRPrj2OR9ZaP7LygovACLcBGAs/s1600/phantom-thread-trailer1-master768.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="768" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gyhE2n4QCw0/Wjuzq0-5u5I/AAAAAAAACO0/au7HjpRcWAoxTeIRPrj2OR9ZaP7LygovACLcBGAs/s400/phantom-thread-trailer1-master768.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>1. DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PzWsWyaiSzI/Wjuz-VpjaLI/AAAAAAAACO4/yIPG1ZLFbMEh6y04gigK_Cd6NUFMogxGQCLcBGAs/s1600/dawson3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PzWsWyaiSzI/Wjuz-VpjaLI/AAAAAAAACO4/yIPG1ZLFbMEh6y04gigK_Cd6NUFMogxGQCLcBGAs/s400/dawson3.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"Life's a mess, dude, but we're all just doing the best we can, you know."</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p07l1TEQM3Q/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p07l1TEQM3Q?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rj3ZGe6d45g/Wj7dr0FdcDI/AAAAAAAACPI/o-S2NrC2saYlryv75hxB5VzGNa5KQ1S1wCLcBGAs/s1600/chaosbekind.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rj3ZGe6d45g/Wj7dr0FdcDI/AAAAAAAACPI/o-S2NrC2saYlryv75hxB5VzGNa5KQ1S1wCLcBGAs/s400/chaosbekind.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(graphic arrangement courtesy of <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffgargas">Jeff Gargas</a>)</span></div>
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Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-66673165463715727872017-05-26T15:40:00.148-07:002021-07-04T16:58:57.052-07:00Fostering the Fantastic<p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hOfy1JfCN2s/YOI7Lyj4w7I/AAAAAAAAC-E/A2AoKNmXzt4ACp-bZJl9HoEhamInqrLzgCLcBGAsYHQ/s632/FANTASTICANIMATION-header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="110" data-original-width="632" height="70" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hOfy1JfCN2s/YOI7Lyj4w7I/AAAAAAAAC-E/A2AoKNmXzt4ACp-bZJl9HoEhamInqrLzgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h70/FANTASTICANIMATION-header.jpg" width="400" /></a></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Now available for streaming on <a href="https://www.nightflightplus.com/">Night Flight Plus</a> is the influential 1977 <i><a href="https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/night-flight-fantastic-animation-festival/5914507bc1475a149202c299">Fantastic Animation Festival</a></i>, the first widely-released collection of animated films, which became a hit with midnight movie lovers, was the first exposure for dozens of respected animators, and spawned like-minded follow-up compilations for decades to follow. It premiered on television as one of the earliest episodes of <i>“Night Flight”</i> in July 1981.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VrPZFsIO7JM/YOI9YEykjtI/AAAAAAAAC-M/4vhxWQqxr-8w7PZXWsX93cepuvpJiK-RQCLcBGAsYHQ/s425/LEVISAD2-425x306.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="306" data-original-width="425" height="288" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VrPZFsIO7JM/YOI9YEykjtI/AAAAAAAAC-M/4vhxWQqxr-8w7PZXWsX93cepuvpJiK-RQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h288/LEVISAD2-425x306.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: left;">For many years, it was difficult for ordinary moviegoers to see any kind of animated short subjects beyond the big studios’ franchise cartoons.</p><p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p>Occasionally, one of the majors would get behind something unique – Columbia Pictures released the Mel Brooks-voiced <i>The Critic</i> in 1963 – but most of the time, you had to go to a museum or other artsy venue to see avant-garde animation, or hope to catch one as filler between shows on a PBS station.</p><p><br /></p><p>In 1976, programmers Chris Padilla and Dean Berko put together an assortment of shorts at the Laguna Moulton Playhouse in Laguna Beach, California, which sold out multiple shows and drew almost 30,000 people during its run.</p><p><br /></p><p>An L.A. distributor took note of this success, and proposed that they create a version to play nationwide.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IPF6JxwbbqU" width="320" youtube-src-id="IPF6JxwbbqU"></iframe><br /><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;"><i>Fantastic Animation Festival</i>, containing sixteen shorts from their event, opened in theaters in 1977 and set records. As Padilla recounted to Variety in 1997, <i>“[It] earned over $300,000 in its first two weeks in sixteen theaters in New York. It had its premiere the same day that </i>Star Wars<i> opened.”</i></p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">The festival quickly found a following with the “head shop” contingent. Rockers, stoners, and other types who rarely set foot in high culture confines could now go out and see the mind-blowing sights they normally sought from concerts and laser shows…likely with some pre-show “enhancements” consumed in the car beforehand.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">Even the ads indicated this was a trip-out event, with an ELO-style spaceship painted in colors reminiscent of blacklight posters from Spencer Gifts.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AcKn2AdorQI/YOI-XuuAOjI/AAAAAAAAC-U/h_sK_-aSoVcRiREvXtJNZMRGoSu5FLp-ACLcBGAsYHQ/s425/FANTASTICANIMATIONFEATURED-425x343.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="343" data-original-width="425" height="323" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AcKn2AdorQI/YOI-XuuAOjI/AAAAAAAAC-U/h_sK_-aSoVcRiREvXtJNZMRGoSu5FLp-ACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h323/FANTASTICANIMATIONFEATURED-425x343.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Horror writer and historian Tom Weaver, who had worked at sub-distributor Films Inc. once remarked, <i>“We had six or eight prints just in the New York office…and we couldn’t keep ‘em on the shelves.”</i></p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">This collection did for animation what Lenny Kaye’s <i>Nuggets</i> compilation album did for ’60s music: elevated several artists to world awareness.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">The biggest star to rise from the fest is surely clay animation pioneer Will Vinton whose cautionary environmental reverie “Mountain Music” and Academy Award-winning short with Bob Gardiner “Closed Mondays” were standouts.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mtu1MXW3C6E/YOI-_8QyogI/AAAAAAAAC-c/XiG2DtGHnAAi4CfkOxUZe5-z0WFdlLcMQCLcBGAsYHQ/s425/MOUNTAINMUSIC2-425x318.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="425" height="299" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mtu1MXW3C6E/YOI-_8QyogI/AAAAAAAAC-c/XiG2DtGHnAAi4CfkOxUZe5-z0WFdlLcMQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h299/MOUNTAINMUSIC2-425x318.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">Due to contractual licensing, “Closed Mondays” was not included in the <i>“Night Flight”</i> broadcast, so you can watch it right here as an appetizer.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4_aVdws3UOE" width="320" youtube-src-id="4_aVdws3UOE"></iframe></div><br /><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">Another name that took off after their inclusion here is Steven Lisberger, who created the romantic and trippy “Cosmic Cartoon” with Eric Ladd, and went on to make history by directing <i>Tron</i> in 1982.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dq7-1MhF7ss/YOJCDW16XcI/AAAAAAAAC-k/Mk_oztpymfwKPNbvdgAjkJAS2F0P94KTACLcBGAsYHQ/s425/COSMICCARTOON1-425x315.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="425" height="296" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dq7-1MhF7ss/YOJCDW16XcI/AAAAAAAAC-k/Mk_oztpymfwKPNbvdgAjkJAS2F0P94KTACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h296/COSMICCARTOON1-425x315.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">There are also some lesser-appreciated filmmakers in this assembly that we’d like to salute.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">Ian Emes’ “French Windows,” scored to Pink Floyd’s bass-thumping “One of These Days,” opens this program with a bang. The contrast of orderly, geometric shapes and patterns with fluid, exuberant rotoscoped images of live dancers suggests the paradox of art, the goal of perfection against the human inconsistencies that make each creation special.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--Sn3UJR1mGg/YOJCYAr1hsI/AAAAAAAAC-s/xDy18UPbCEox9Yw1HxELB01gMJ-oKHs5ACLcBGAsYHQ/s425/FRENCHWINDOWS1-425x306.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="306" data-original-width="425" height="288" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--Sn3UJR1mGg/YOJCYAr1hsI/AAAAAAAAC-s/xDy18UPbCEox9Yw1HxELB01gMJ-oKHs5ACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h288/FRENCHWINDOWS1-425x306.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">Pink Floyd were so impressed by Emes’ film, they played it at their shows, and he was commissioned to create more material to be projected in their concerts, such as this prelude for “Time.”</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KSwYkd7C2xs" width="320" youtube-src-id="KSwYkd7C2xs"></iframe></div><br /><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">After creating more art and animation for other musicians like Roger Daltrey and Mike Oldfield, Emes switched to live-action directing, helming the youth music drama <i>Knights & Emeralds</i>, an episode of <i>“The Comic Strip presents”</i> featuring multiple alumni from <i><a href="https://projectorhasbeendrinking.blogspot.com/2016/07/vyv-eat-telly.html">“The Young Ones,”</a></i> and the too-hot-for-TV Duran Duran music video, “The Chauffeur.”</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1B__8N5d_LA" width="320" youtube-src-id="1B__8N5d_LA"></iframe></div><br /><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">Mihail Badica was the first Romanian animator to work in stop-motion, in a more surreal and fanciful style than his fest-mate Will Vinton.</p><p></p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">His short “Icar” (or “Icarus”) is a funny but thoughtful observation on how evolution and discovery depends on one soul not settling for the status quo and willing to be ridiculed as they try for what seems to be impossible.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qOoJAR8HdDw/YOJD0oinwSI/AAAAAAAAC-0/orTi84tel3c15UZYtgbZFZcRtBBh8j52wCLcBGAsYHQ/s425/ICARUS-425x299.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="425" height="281" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qOoJAR8HdDw/YOJD0oinwSI/AAAAAAAAC-0/orTi84tel3c15UZYtgbZFZcRtBBh8j52wCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h281/ICARUS-425x299.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">After years of making shorts under the close scrutiny of the often repressive Romanian government, Badica defected to Denmark in 1985, where he works and teaches today.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">He recently did the animation for director Helene Kjeldsen’s 2015 short The Outing, featuring music by Nick Cave.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZCYXQDl7SN8" width="320" youtube-src-id="ZCYXQDl7SN8"></iframe></div><br /><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">As you’re watching, if you think that we left in an ad break by mistake, you’re wrong: a pair of acclaimed commercials are showcased in this collection as well.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">“Stranger” is a wild psychedelic Levi’s commercial about finding liberation through pants, narrated by velvety-voiced <i>Word Jazz</i> artist Ken Nordine, with art direction by graphic artist Chris Blum and rotoscope animation directed by Lynda Taylor.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">The spot won multiple awards, including a Clio, in 1972.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FCC7MKROFOg/YOJEmS8R8PI/AAAAAAAAC-8/lB5bWl14j3cNqj7k6UJOZN9o_Iy0ZQhVwCLcBGAsYHQ/s425/LEVISAD1-425x302.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="302" data-original-width="425" height="284" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FCC7MKROFOg/YOJEmS8R8PI/AAAAAAAAC-8/lB5bWl14j3cNqj7k6UJOZN9o_Iy0ZQhVwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h284/LEVISAD1-425x302.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">Lynda would later have the weird distinction of contributing animation to three sketch comedy movies of the ’70s, all centered around the subject of TV: <i>The Groove Tube</i>, The Firesign Theatre’s <i>Cracking Up</i>, and perennial <i>"Night Flight"</i> favorite, <i><a href="https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/tunnel-vision/5735a851560f5807fc02ca5f">Tunnel Vision</a></i>!</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-Vf-l0Wj0nc" width="320" youtube-src-id="-Vf-l0Wj0nc"></iframe></div><br /><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">That’s followed by “Uncola,” an equally groovy 7Up spot with smiling moons, butterfly girls, and hundreds of bubbles, for thirty seconds of eyeball high!</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">The computer effects came from visual effects forefathers Robert Abel and Associates in a process called “candy-apple neon,” which was later employed in fest-mate Steven Lisberger’s <i>Tron </i>to give that gleaming look to computerized Jeff Bridges.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vc41zusGcfw/YOJIFcgltJI/AAAAAAAAC_E/AkC7ea194Z84A58ARbMnCu7dKFUPkD2LwCLcBGAsYHQ/s425/UNCOLA-425x244.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="244" data-original-width="425" height="230" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vc41zusGcfw/YOJIFcgltJI/AAAAAAAAC_E/AkC7ea194Z84A58ARbMnCu7dKFUPkD2LwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h230/UNCOLA-425x244.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;"><i>“Night Flight”</i> was less than a month old when they premiered <i>Fantastic Animation Festival</i> on TV in July 1981. Listen to the commercial bumpers and you’ll notice it’s not Pat Prescott doing the announcing!</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">As mentioned earlier, not all the shorts that played in the theatrical version were able to be included in the <i>“Night Flight”</i> airing, so, to make up for it, the producers added a bonus short, which we think is really super, man.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RsYCATzHJLA/YOJIZwB_yoI/AAAAAAAAC_M/W8NGxempuwQlEWIcoGOXo2lujCdURM5XACLcBGAsYHQ/s425/SUPERMAN2-425x307.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="307" data-original-width="425" height="289" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RsYCATzHJLA/YOJIZwB_yoI/AAAAAAAAC_M/W8NGxempuwQlEWIcoGOXo2lujCdURM5XACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h289/SUPERMAN2-425x307.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">Literally, it’s the first <i>Superman </i>cartoon by Max & Dave Fleischer, complete with a brief origin of the Last Son of Krypton’s arrival to Earth, and a mad scientist supervillain with an evil bird and a death ray at his disposal.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q3PEKeYsQOs/YOJIlU2otbI/AAAAAAAAC_Q/PPFdfaFc4rUIVHSL31Jqwk8C3r5PeQOJACLcBGAsYHQ/s425/SUPERMAN1-425x293.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="425" height="276" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q3PEKeYsQOs/YOJIlU2otbI/AAAAAAAAC_Q/PPFdfaFc4rUIVHSL31Jqwk8C3r5PeQOJACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h276/SUPERMAN1-425x293.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">The national success of <i>Fantastic Animation Festival</i> led to many spin-offs.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">Rock band promoters Craig “Spike” Decker and Mike Gribble, who helped circulate flyers for the original Laguna Beach event, soon launched their own touring shows, most famously <i>Spike & Mike’s Sick And Twisted Festival of Animation</i>, which, despite the death of co-founder Gribble, continues to this day.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ms2awfcwSes/YOJI5XlGBUI/AAAAAAAAC_c/nSme87qcLWYlcw_Ip9IfYqUJBAudqweQwCLcBGAsYHQ/s425/MOONSHADOW1-425x286.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="425" height="269" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ms2awfcwSes/YOJI5XlGBUI/AAAAAAAAC_c/nSme87qcLWYlcw_Ip9IfYqUJBAudqweQwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h269/MOONSHADOW1-425x286.jpg" width="400" /></a></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">And the International Animated Film Association partnered with Landmark Theaters in the late ’70s to release their annual <i>“International Tournee of Animation”</i> shows to adventurous venues for two decades.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Today, you can find animated shorts on cable, on the internet, and in theaters on a regular basis, and we think you can thank some bold artists and a couple brash Californians for stoking that appetite.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Watch “French Windows,” “Icarus,” “Bambi Meets Godzilla,” and more in the 1981 “Night Flight” presentation of <i><a href="https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/night-flight-fantastic-animation-festival/5914507bc1475a149202c299">Fantastic Animation Festival</a></i>, now streaming now at <a href="https://www.nightflightplus.com/">Night Flight Plus</a>!</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ULEugpjh4fo/YOJKPS3p4uI/AAAAAAAAC_k/DJ5vNUzbqKIzdXt7DTUZ01Jj4BIDcFexgCLcBGAsYHQ/s627/FANTASTICANIMATION1-425x627.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="627" data-original-width="425" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ULEugpjh4fo/YOJKPS3p4uI/AAAAAAAAC_k/DJ5vNUzbqKIzdXt7DTUZ01Jj4BIDcFexgCLcBGAsYHQ/w434-h640/FANTASTICANIMATION1-425x627.jpg" width="434" /></a><br /><br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BHb68aPdYoE/YOJKjgghnJI/AAAAAAAAC_s/WVzIY6f2I6Q9YxjAO-OcI_BHcB3NWXEawCLcBGAsYHQ/s625/MEH%2BNF%2Bcredit%2Bblock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="189" data-original-width="625" height="121" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BHb68aPdYoE/YOJKjgghnJI/AAAAAAAAC_s/WVzIY6f2I6Q9YxjAO-OcI_BHcB3NWXEawCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h121/MEH%2BNF%2Bcredit%2Bblock.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">(This essay was originally written for Night Flight Plus. It has been recreated in the style it was presented in at the site, and matched to its original date of publication. Tremendous thanks to Stuart Shapiro and Bryan Thomas for the platform.)</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p>Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-35005124105629243932017-04-10T23:57:00.155-07:002021-07-13T01:17:54.747-07:00Look What They Done to Our Gals, Ma<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f2j4etYJmew/YO1KzGdD1qI/AAAAAAAADK8/_X5MMm62pdkdejrecsPpY9gJ2XdBaKzdQCLcBGAsYHQ/s635/SOLANGE-header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="111" data-original-width="635" height="70" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f2j4etYJmew/YO1KzGdD1qI/AAAAAAAADK8/_X5MMm62pdkdejrecsPpY9gJ2XdBaKzdQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h70/SOLANGE-header.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p> <br /></p><p></p><p><b>The 1972 murder mystery <i><a href="https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/solange/589c73df316ccf105701c40a">What Have You Done To Solange?</a></i>, part of a wave of stylish and memorable foreign-made horror films during the ‘70s, has recently been added to <a href="https://www.nightflightplus.com/">Night Flight Plus</a>’ selection of titles from the <a href="https://www.nightflightplus.com/playlists/Arrow%20Films">Arrow Films</a> library.</b></p><p><br /></p><p>After serving as cameraman to Sergio Leone on his breakout hits <i>A Fistful of Dollars</i> and <i>For a Few Dollars More</i>, Massimo Dallamano struck out on his own as a writer/director, building a reputation for sex-tinged thrillers, such as the very mod <i><a href="https://youtu.be/wR6o7uO-yxY?t=10m20s">Dorian Gray</a></i> with Helmut Burger.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P9y07ESXbwI/YO08aDsFliI/AAAAAAAADJc/oZWmlF11AdwUtOftKA5XyVtTA-PPvsw6gCLcBGAsYHQ/s425/SOLANGE2-425x239.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="425" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P9y07ESXbwI/YO08aDsFliI/AAAAAAAADJc/oZWmlF11AdwUtOftKA5XyVtTA-PPvsw6gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/SOLANGE2-425x239.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p>Around this time, two very popular styles of murder mysteries had emerged in the European film scene.</p><p><br /></p><p>Italy had fostered the “giallo,” a catch-all term for lurid thrillers involving elaborate killings and sex derived from the Italian word for “yellow,” the standard color of the paperback covers such pulp fiction was printed on.</p><p><br /></p><p>Meanwhile in then-West Germany, a similar subgenre called the “krimi” (short for “kriminalfilm” – “crime film”), prolific adaptations of books by English writer Edgar Wallace, entertained audiences with secret vendettas and left-field killer revelations.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--_AVOXnluK0/YO082ZEC8gI/AAAAAAAADJk/zC6i0IlRA9sG85QZlaUR2caOcNkHgAjuACLcBGAsYHQ/s425/SOLANGE3-425x234.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="234" data-original-width="425" height="220" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--_AVOXnluK0/YO082ZEC8gI/AAAAAAAADJk/zC6i0IlRA9sG85QZlaUR2caOcNkHgAjuACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h220/SOLANGE3-425x234.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p>These two movements were joined in gory harmony when Italian and German producers joined forces with Dallamano in 1972 to create his most well-received and enduring film, <i>What Have You Done to Solange?</i></p><p><br /></p><p>A married teacher at a London girls’ college, brazenly carrying on an affair with one of his pupils, becomes the first of many possible suspects when an insular clique of popular chicks are killed off in particularly nasty fashion, and launches his own investigation to clear his name.</p><p><br /></p><p>We’re not going to tell you much more about the story, suffice to say the terrain of kink and degradation that follows makes it abundantly clear that <i>Solange </i>is not a movie you could remake today.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Solange</i> stars handsome Fabio Testi as Henry, the teacher-turned-detective. He drew worldwide attention in Vittorio De Sica’s Oscar-winning Italian film <i>The Garden of the Finzi-Continis</i>, and would become a favorite of <i>Two-Lane Blacktop</i> director Monte Hellman, appearing in three of his films.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fZYRFAFkIgg/YO0-D3zHw-I/AAAAAAAADJs/jWT6tVXIQ5cPs5MlhYzN-ZZVsmk_iMp3gCLcBGAsYHQ/s425/SOLANGE11-425x331.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="331" data-original-width="425" height="311" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fZYRFAFkIgg/YO0-D3zHw-I/AAAAAAAADJs/jWT6tVXIQ5cPs5MlhYzN-ZZVsmk_iMp3gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h311/SOLANGE11-425x331.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Christina Galbo, who plays his student mistress Elizabeth, was previously in another classic perversion-and-murder-in-a-girls-school thriller, Narciso Ibanez Serrador’s <i>The House that Screamed</i>, which recently received an excellent BluRay release from Scream Factory, and has been praised by Guillermo Del Toro as <i>“a powerful, transgressive retelling of the Frankenstein myth.”</i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x8zazm2NEio/YO1BCugeM2I/AAAAAAAADJ0/NSD8KdAqFvQruzrPqs2NvnskxUJ_fE0RwCLcBGAsYHQ/s425/SOLANGE4-425x225.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="425" height="211" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x8zazm2NEio/YO1BCugeM2I/AAAAAAAADJ0/NSD8KdAqFvQruzrPqs2NvnskxUJ_fE0RwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h211/SOLANGE4-425x225.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p>Although she does not appear on screen for almost an hour, Camille Keaton makes her memorable film debut as the mute, ethereal Solange herself.</p><p><br /></p><p>Keaton would later become immortal for playing an assault victim turned vigilante in <i>I Spit on Your Grave</i>, and recently reprised the character for an official sequel.</p><p><br /></p><p>All of the onscreen nastiness is staged with a gorgeous score by Ennio Morricone, featuring operatic soloing by Edda D’Orso, who previously provided the arias for “Jill’s Theme” in Sergio Leone’s <i>Once Upon a Time in the West</i>.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KN4pmxpGJNY" width="320" youtube-src-id="KN4pmxpGJNY"></iframe><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p>In America, <i>Solange </i>was acquired by genre specialists Hallmark Releasing, who created the legendary “IT’S ONLY A MOVIE” campaign for <i>Last House on the Left</i>, and they released it under different titles for years.</p><p><br /></p><p>The best known alternate moniker was <i>The School that Couldn’t Scream</i>, which was used in 1977 to suggest it was a spiritual cousin to the Southern horror hit <i>The Town that Dreaded Sundown</i> – the advertising even claimed that, like <i>Sundown</i>, it was based on a true story (it wasn’t), and that it made the bigger film “look like a puppet show!”</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0BlHZHXn764/YO1DquwTwXI/AAAAAAAADJ8/Tx6wgjDuScI642yxgphvYCTymr6BwDJGACLcBGAsYHQ/s425/SOLANGE5-425x354.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="425" height="334" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0BlHZHXn764/YO1DquwTwXI/AAAAAAAADJ8/Tx6wgjDuScI642yxgphvYCTymr6BwDJGACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h334/SOLANGE5-425x354.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p>Exploitation historian Chris Poggiali has documented all the other names <i>Solange </i>hid under in <a href="https://templeofschlock.blogspot.com/2017/01/movie-ads-of-week-many-faces-of-solange.html">this post at his Temple of Schlock blog</a>. We’re particularly amused at how they tried to make it look like a cheerleader comedy under the name <i>Rah Rah Girls</i>!</p><p><br /></p><p>Two years after the release of <i>Solange</i>, Dallamano directed and co-wrote <i>What Have They Done to Your Daughters?</i>, which was not a direct sequel to the earlier film, but did continue the concept of young girls murdered amidst sleazy behavior with authority figures.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cPwo9xL_33Y/YO1EOpcPbXI/AAAAAAAADKE/2OSheHVuWMEoEIbXq3OWyRsjf5cqnG-hwCLcBGAsYHQ/s710/SOLANGE6-425x710.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="710" data-original-width="425" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cPwo9xL_33Y/YO1EOpcPbXI/AAAAAAAADKE/2OSheHVuWMEoEIbXq3OWyRsjf5cqnG-hwCLcBGAsYHQ/w384-h640/SOLANGE6-425x710.jpg" width="384" /></a><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">This outing blended giallo stylings with another emerging Italian subgenre, the “poliziotteschi”, or “police action” drama, modeled on American hits like <i>Dirty Harry</i> and <i>Bullitt</i>, that offered car chases and cynical politics alongside the slayings.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vkB8I1hGWTw" width="320" youtube-src-id="vkB8I1hGWTw"></iframe><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">The handy website <a href="https://giallofiles.blogspot.com/2014/01/what-have-they-done-to-your-daughters.html">The Giallo Files</a> likens this entry to a <i>“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”</i> episode, and indeed, it’s quite interesting to see how salacious stories like this, once the domain of drive-ins and fleapit cinemas, are now fodder for a respected and long-running TV series.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PnMeH0x3PjA/YO1FWBDskpI/AAAAAAAADKM/k8CMD2R0P48f4aRAv-ggQBZRgolxMW6tgCLcBGAsYHQ/s425/SOLANGE10-425x299.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="425" height="281" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PnMeH0x3PjA/YO1FWBDskpI/AAAAAAAADKM/k8CMD2R0P48f4aRAv-ggQBZRgolxMW6tgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h281/SOLANGE10-425x299.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p>Dallamano had co-scripted and planned to direct a third installment in what was now unofficially called the “Schoolgirls in Peril” trilogy, but the 59-year old filmmaker died in a car accident in November 1976 before he could begin production on it.</p><p><br /></p><p>The story went through more writers, and with Alberto Negrin taking over direction, <i>Enigma Rosso</i> aka <i>Red Rings of Fear</i> was completed and released in 1978.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GuFurwVhGSQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="GuFurwVhGSQ"></iframe><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Solange </i>star Fabio Testi returned, this time as a police inspector who, in looking into a co-ed’s very brutal demise, discovers a group of “mean girls” at her school up to most unsanctioned extracurricular activities, that make them the next targets of the killer.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xrDb0C-f1Uc" width="320" youtube-src-id="xrDb0C-f1Uc"></iframe><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Interestingly, long before <i>“Twin Peaks,”</i> Testi’s detective finds the victim wrapped in plastic.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j8jLOgzcAQc/YO1HsdHp5JI/AAAAAAAADKU/9cgdCzERMX0EnU8-7AxQKccfLlHK7kPvwCLcBGAsYHQ/s425/SOLANGE7-425x191.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="191" data-original-width="425" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j8jLOgzcAQc/YO1HsdHp5JI/AAAAAAAADKU/9cgdCzERMX0EnU8-7AxQKccfLlHK7kPvwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h180/SOLANGE7-425x191.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">To the best of our knowledge, it’s the only movie we’ve seen where a cop dramatically describes the size of the murderer’s…weapon…to shake school authorities out of their complacency.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lLpx1crMNnI/YO1H_YMa5lI/AAAAAAAADKc/TLgC7ASWhKoz5gajIQUbKl5BToIW1dc4gCLcBGAsYHQ/s425/SOLANGE8-425x176.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="176" data-original-width="425" height="166" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lLpx1crMNnI/YO1H_YMa5lI/AAAAAAAADKc/TLgC7ASWhKoz5gajIQUbKl5BToIW1dc4gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h166/SOLANGE8-425x176.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p>Co-starring with Testi were former Warren Beatty paramour and frequent Rainer Werner Fassbinder star Christine Kaufman (who just recently passed away in March 2017), and American expat turned Spanish horror icon Jack Taylor.</p><p><br /></p><p>The film has been announced for BluRay release later this year <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Enigma-Blu-ray-Christine-Kaufmann-Taylor/dp/B079MXSS9L">from Scorpion Releasing</a>.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F5KOM0cQKVU/YO1I2dEz3HI/AAAAAAAADKk/oKnR6SF3uEc1omAwYRqQ4Xk-0-K_u_apgCLcBGAsYHQ/s425/SOLANGE12-425x305.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="425" height="288" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F5KOM0cQKVU/YO1I2dEz3HI/AAAAAAAADKk/oKnR6SF3uEc1omAwYRqQ4Xk-0-K_u_apgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h288/SOLANGE12-425x305.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p>Arrow Films now offers the original <i>Solange </i>in a beautiful restored transfer available for streaming at Night Flight Plus.</p><p><br /></p><p>After you watch it, we encourage you to purchase their Blu/DVD combo edition that includes bonus features, such as interviews with surviving cast members, and an even more thorough history of the “Schoolgirls in Peril” trilogy by horror historian Michael Mackenzie.</p><p><br /></p><p>For many of us, a great weekend night was watching a scary movie and a helping of <i>“Night Flight.”</i> Now, you can have both in one sitting, anytime you like!</p><p><br /></p><p>However, beware of secret teen girl squads and black gloves!</p><p><br /></p><p><b><i><a href="https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/solange/589c73df316ccf105701c40a">What Have You Done To Solange?</a></i> — along with other selected titles from the <a href="https://www.nightflightplus.com/playlists/Arrow%20Films">Arrow Films</a> library — are now available for instant viewing at <a href="https://www.nightflightplus.com/">Night Flight Plus</a>.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JOd3pbNt0kQ/YO1Jxj7dDVI/AAAAAAAADKs/XkqNlbRZ6rMvNWjk-xEnBvVhif7LHiFOQCLcBGAsYHQ/s491/SOLANGE1-425x491.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="425" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JOd3pbNt0kQ/YO1Jxj7dDVI/AAAAAAAADKs/XkqNlbRZ6rMvNWjk-xEnBvVhif7LHiFOQCLcBGAsYHQ/w346-h400/SOLANGE1-425x491.jpg" width="346" /></a><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xAxP3f9Zro8/YO1J9DkomRI/AAAAAAAADKw/fRjfX2NGDCEbrEXXZxOhY6eCOmTMevMGACLcBGAsYHQ/s625/MEH%2BNF%2Bcredit%2Bblock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="189" data-original-width="625" height="121" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xAxP3f9Zro8/YO1J9DkomRI/AAAAAAAADKw/fRjfX2NGDCEbrEXXZxOhY6eCOmTMevMGACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h121/MEH%2BNF%2Bcredit%2Bblock.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">(This essay was originally written for Night Flight Plus. It has been recreated in the style it was presented in at the site, and matched to its original date of publication. Tremendous thanks to Stuart Shapiro and Bryan Thomas for the platform.)</p>Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-85563506066199152732017-01-12T04:12:00.000-08:002017-01-12T04:16:36.118-08:00The Rocky Varla Picture Show<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>(Or: Faster, Frankenfurt! Kill! Kill!)</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Respectfully dedicated to all my friends at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sinsotheflesh/">Sins o' the Flesh</a> and <a href="http://www.girlwerks.com/">Girlwerks Media</a></span></div>
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Sometimes, the unexpected pleasures of watching your favorite films more than, well, the average person revisits a favorite film, is that you begin to see wild symmetries and convergences among them that make you appreciate them even more.</div>
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If you watch THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW enough times, you'll notice that someone on the production was a Russ Meyer fan. After all, I don't think anyone at 20th Century-Fox was thinking about corporate synergy in such a fashion to pressure the art director into putting a BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS soundtrack album in Columbia's bedroom. This was intentional homage. For that matter, there's certainly a case to be made for kinship between the two counterculture musicals, what with both telling a tragicomic saga of nice kids in a wild new environment of sex and drugs being manipulated by a sociopath of fluid sexuality. At the very least, they're a dynamite double feature.</div>
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However, upon a recent viewing of Meyer's other stone classic, FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!, I began to see connections that had eluded me before, little things that made me speculate as to whether just maybe, amidst all the direct allusions to monster movies and Old Dark House mysteries, there was also some buried homage being paid to this chronicle of go-go girls gone-gone amok, at a time when only seriously savage film lovers would have picked up on them...</div>
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<b><i>"I would like, if I may, to take you...on a strange journey..."</i></b></div>
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<b><i>"...two young, ordinary, healthy kids..."</i></b></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>"...there were dark storm clouds - heavy, black, and pendulous - towards which they were driving."</i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bgkFBJTP9bg/WHbQPCM9BLI/AAAAAAAACDM/jqIusvwDCbk8TEHaUkvCSbokoK9H7qB_ACLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bopen-574x450.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bgkFBJTP9bg/WHbQPCM9BLI/AAAAAAAACDM/jqIusvwDCbk8TEHaUkvCSbokoK9H7qB_ACLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bopen-574x450.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>"It was a night out they were going to remember...for a very long time."</i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kztVSJuqwj4/WHbQjvi0bHI/AAAAAAAACDQ/c_iosTiWBNs2ngZCdzaoO3q0R4MGovwUwCLcB/s1600/FPKKmeet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kztVSJuqwj4/WHbQjvi0bHI/AAAAAAAACDQ/c_iosTiWBNs2ngZCdzaoO3q0R4MGovwUwCLcB/s320/FPKKmeet.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"Say, do any of you guys know how to Madison?"</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wq0fDcETalU/WHbQ3Ev5pwI/AAAAAAAACDU/nDMK6TQk5KsJHnHULQ6aBb_rJTw5hmRkQCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2B06-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wq0fDcETalU/WHbQ3Ev5pwI/AAAAAAAACDU/nDMK6TQk5KsJHnHULQ6aBb_rJTw5hmRkQCLcB/s320/FPKK%2B06-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"This isn't the Junior Chamber of Commerce..."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ennveVFw0O8/WHbRBjfK2aI/AAAAAAAACDY/0KsX0Nyk6SMy-2xw_lyNfxltuHhDxE0KwCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bconfront1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ennveVFw0O8/WHbRBjfK2aI/AAAAAAAACDY/0KsX0Nyk6SMy-2xw_lyNfxltuHhDxE0KwCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bconfront1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"How forceful you are...such a perfect specimen of manhood. So...dominant!"</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PHD6koZCUFk/WHddJtQQ62I/AAAAAAAACHA/jql_kNh2STQyBF-Pf_1vuTA-WvdsMvwWgCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bslap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PHD6koZCUFk/WHddJtQQ62I/AAAAAAAACHA/jql_kNh2STQyBF-Pf_1vuTA-WvdsMvwWgCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bslap.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"That's no way to behave on your first day out."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FuOCrwpnBzg/WHbTh5GPSfI/AAAAAAAACDg/nxYOvZfgAHoyjfe9loXro3jN5gm2nWfzACLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bbreak-580x445.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FuOCrwpnBzg/WHbTh5GPSfI/AAAAAAAACDg/nxYOvZfgAHoyjfe9loXro3jN5gm2nWfzACLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bbreak-580x445.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"Do you want her to see you, like this?"</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZcOGK11YV5I/WHbTuUilPBI/AAAAAAAACDk/JuVknW4xv2MNu6l5Sndntz99TV861flOACLcB/s1600/FPKK-Dragging-the-Dead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZcOGK11YV5I/WHbTuUilPBI/AAAAAAAACDk/JuVknW4xv2MNu6l5Sndntz99TV861flOACLcB/s320/FPKK-Dragging-the-Dead.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"He had a certain naive charm, but no muscle."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6g3jHKH4cP0/WHbUybyzEpI/AAAAAAAACDs/IEtyUdjl6CEeK8l8SR-PG_8mnoQjSalRgCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2B0000118768.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6g3jHKH4cP0/WHbUybyzEpI/AAAAAAAACDs/IEtyUdjl6CEeK8l8SR-PG_8mnoQjSalRgCLcB/s320/FPKK%2B0000118768.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"You better wise up..."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C7YhAMs2egc/WHbWr2nc8gI/AAAAAAAACD0/I2jhMpxPXOIaMVrwRMXaEAWJ743km5HvwCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bveg1-580x442.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C7YhAMs2egc/WHbWr2nc8gI/AAAAAAAACD0/I2jhMpxPXOIaMVrwRMXaEAWJ743km5HvwCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bveg1-580x442.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"Suddenly, you get a break."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IGymePhnKu4/WHbXEdsa3_I/AAAAAAAACD4/NxxcxqVd4A0SJcThC1ZqC-SkN52Cnr6awCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bveg2-580x444.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IGymePhnKu4/WHbXEdsa3_I/AAAAAAAACD4/NxxcxqVd4A0SJcThC1ZqC-SkN52Cnr6awCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bveg2-580x444.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"All the pieces seem to fit into place."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zf4IrNdLrlk/WHbXjgwDD4I/AAAAAAAACD8/1aDUBkNdXjovTLQYZBqzcIF8lV2Ux8U5gCLcB/s1600/FPKK_b481073ab3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zf4IrNdLrlk/WHbXjgwDD4I/AAAAAAAACD8/1aDUBkNdXjovTLQYZBqzcIF8lV2Ux8U5gCLcB/s320/FPKK_b481073ab3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"And Paradise is to be mine."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FJx__tTq-YE/WHdjbCH3XRI/AAAAAAAACHk/0oWPJk8JMPgRP-eTx60BNsgsfhpWbvc2wCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bstand4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FJx__tTq-YE/WHdjbCH3XRI/AAAAAAAACHk/0oWPJk8JMPgRP-eTx60BNsgsfhpWbvc2wCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bstand4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"It's not often we receive visitors here, let alone offer them hospitality."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f795XaDD6tU/WHdYphrme8I/AAAAAAAACGo/YQuDEWWZFkcE4IJIuZT7fT9DKX64uxH-wCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2BLyr3g.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f795XaDD6tU/WHdYphrme8I/AAAAAAAACGo/YQuDEWWZFkcE4IJIuZT7fT9DKX64uxH-wCLcB/s320/FPKK%2BLyr3g.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"I'm sure you're not spent yet."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kr4VpxUm9UY/WHba_xAIg6I/AAAAAAAACEM/cJX67k2p3dc91cWvt5hkMYDlVTWEKBZtACLcB/s1600/FPKK-dennis-busch-lori-williams-1965.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kr4VpxUm9UY/WHba_xAIg6I/AAAAAAAACEM/cJX67k2p3dc91cWvt5hkMYDlVTWEKBZtACLcB/s320/FPKK-dennis-busch-lori-williams-1965.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"Such strenuous living I just don't understand..."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w1ngRREzB6o/WHdZSwFfV3I/AAAAAAAACGs/m2kVcoCjWq8j8yblIyVPQpACqHOXIP6lwCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bvlcsnap2013020720h03m36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w1ngRREzB6o/WHdZSwFfV3I/AAAAAAAACGs/m2kVcoCjWq8j8yblIyVPQpACqHOXIP6lwCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bvlcsnap2013020720h03m36.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>"This in itself was proof that their host was a man of little morals..."</i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hEyFRwce4ZE/WHdX1PNyBjI/AAAAAAAACGk/-FDnExppJRg1BNAySLKX43Jf5ogG6ujFgCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2BSueBernard11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hEyFRwce4ZE/WHdX1PNyBjI/AAAAAAAACGk/-FDnExppJRg1BNAySLKX43Jf5ogG6ujFgCLcB/s320/FPKK%2BSueBernard11.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>"...and some persuasion."</i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X6ovRWPmUBE/WHbbrHetODI/AAAAAAAACEY/cb52M-ABCAot6ObnB2AdvlJpc3qlr7JZQCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bmolestation2-580x447.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X6ovRWPmUBE/WHbbrHetODI/AAAAAAAACEY/cb52M-ABCAot6ObnB2AdvlJpc3qlr7JZQCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bmolestation2-580x447.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>"What further indignities were they to be subjected to?"</i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Tf-Oz1bKy7Q/WHbca3zow1I/AAAAAAAACEg/AGAJ7mFnG4UFbtb7GaygeRlx-jUBrd6AgCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2B3042a2944b6919d239f5849c082.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Tf-Oz1bKy7Q/WHbca3zow1I/AAAAAAAACEg/AGAJ7mFnG4UFbtb7GaygeRlx-jUBrd6AgCLcB/s320/FPKK%2B3042a2944b6919d239f5849c082.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"How did it happen? I understood you were supposed to be watching!"</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VmeUKvSbiV8/WHbdpK4HOGI/AAAAAAAACEk/fPgcnnLQuqUJNajg8cfVUh1MYhHisCODACLcB/s1600/FPKK27-e1275837947131.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VmeUKvSbiV8/WHbdpK4HOGI/AAAAAAAACEk/fPgcnnLQuqUJNajg8cfVUh1MYhHisCODACLcB/s320/FPKK27-e1275837947131.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>"Food has always played a vital role in life's rituals: The breaking of bread, the last meal of the condemned man... and now this meal ."</i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lcAJZtD8MRc/WHbeLhIEiPI/AAAAAAAACEo/V1vi1JhMUv0HXF7SkpzwtHzjsh7mBAg5QCLcB/s1600/FPKK_myfdggRnIr1s4y2zbo1_500.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lcAJZtD8MRc/WHbeLhIEiPI/AAAAAAAACEo/V1vi1JhMUv0HXF7SkpzwtHzjsh7mBAg5QCLcB/s320/FPKK_myfdggRnIr1s4y2zbo1_500.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>"However informal it might appear, </i></b><b><i>you can be sure that there was to be little bonhomie."</i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Cyy7GDdpppk/WHbeiP-NvkI/AAAAAAAACE0/9AR2sHlSg8cZcBRrsjCbKAcwHJjH9ZJqwCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2B3444817_l4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Cyy7GDdpppk/WHbeiP-NvkI/AAAAAAAACE0/9AR2sHlSg8cZcBRrsjCbKAcwHJjH9ZJqwCLcB/s320/FPKK%2B3444817_l4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"I loved you...and what did it get me? I'll tell you. A big Nothing!"</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W0577-UZVxU/WHbexhZZ84I/AAAAAAAACE4/KRbj_jfvp6so6NdipzcTKmhFiI8torzCgCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bcertaindope-580x446.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W0577-UZVxU/WHbexhZZ84I/AAAAAAAACE4/KRbj_jfvp6so6NdipzcTKmhFiI8torzCgCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bcertaindope-580x446.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"Now the only thing that gives me hope is my love of a certain dope."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-__FBuPkMPwY/WHbgKJp_DvI/AAAAAAAACFA/4FWpArbZ2y0yHc8rUYSJSP3lmp_pCycMACLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bvegdin1-580x444.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><strike><img border="0" height="244" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-__FBuPkMPwY/WHbgKJp_DvI/AAAAAAAACFA/4FWpArbZ2y0yHc8rUYSJSP3lmp_pCycMACLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bvegdin1-580x444.gif" width="320" /></strike></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>{"Rocky doesn't give a fuck, he's hungry!"}</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jd5j955yW4k/WHbfyZA9AqI/AAAAAAAACGQ/72H4N59D1SYCP3Z_lbi9CcxN20VmSb3rQCEw/s1600/FPKK%2Btender-580x445.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jd5j955yW4k/WHbfyZA9AqI/AAAAAAAACGQ/72H4N59D1SYCP3Z_lbi9CcxN20VmSb3rQCEw/s320/FPKK%2Btender-580x445.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"That's a rather tender subject."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ajf90Quwumo/WHbgf22v0tI/AAAAAAAACFE/5xicHhbXakIZYaBUR7xaTXiSLhMK8GBrQCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Barousal-580x445.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ajf90Quwumo/WHbgf22v0tI/AAAAAAAACFE/5xicHhbXakIZYaBUR7xaTXiSLhMK8GBrQCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Barousal-580x445.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>"'Emotion: Agitation or disturbance of mind; vehement or excited mental state.'"</i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9b0v-Kto9OU/WHbh8N8X7aI/AAAAAAAACFQ/LMt4iCZ992IFqSZwcEYoT9keIysw1KXZgCLcB/s1600/FPKK_04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="254" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9b0v-Kto9OU/WHbh8N8X7aI/AAAAAAAACFQ/LMt4iCZ992IFqSZwcEYoT9keIysw1KXZgCLcB/s320/FPKK_04.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>"It is also a powerful and irrational master."</i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zC1w2hI20cg/WHbnPTa4P6I/AAAAAAAACFw/3sY2Z74axFY7K-boKoxfzCEwCTbvxO0UQCLcB/s1600/FPKK_lgmxziFI2q1qd9ablo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zC1w2hI20cg/WHbnPTa4P6I/AAAAAAAACFw/3sY2Z74axFY7K-boKoxfzCEwCTbvxO0UQCLcB/s320/FPKK_lgmxziFI2q1qd9ablo1_500.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>"Oh come on...admit it, you liked it didn't you? There's no crime in giving yourself over to pleasure."</b></div>
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<b>"If only we hadn't made this journey...If only we were among friends...or sane persons."</b></div>
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<b>"Even smiling makes my face ache."</b></div>
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<b>"Well, unfortunately for you all, the plans are to be changed."</b></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8wu-4Y8R8z0/WHdfJRdOeLI/AAAAAAAACHM/p5kvw5ihuoQz5oEJH-Vefw_LTM-TBlZ9wCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2BXNX3aCBm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8wu-4Y8R8z0/WHdfJRdOeLI/AAAAAAAACHM/p5kvw5ihuoQz5oEJH-Vefw_LTM-TBlZ9wCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2BXNX3aCBm.png" /></a></div>
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<b>"I ask for nothing..."</b></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T2-rVr-fMnU/WHboYbBERXI/AAAAAAAACF4/swDMLUXd6C8zCa_yQhGYEgYCNlCtn1bYwCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bknife-580x445.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T2-rVr-fMnU/WHboYbBERXI/AAAAAAAACF4/swDMLUXd6C8zCa_yQhGYEgYCNlCtn1bYwCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bknife-580x445.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>"And you shall receive it..."</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>"... in abundance!"</b></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yJK4plR0ppI/WHdalUyYtuI/AAAAAAAACG0/AHfst5imP14jd1-Ed1ZDCPSoJHO_guj5ACLcB/s1600/FPKK%2B0000118775.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yJK4plR0ppI/WHdalUyYtuI/AAAAAAAACG0/AHfst5imP14jd1-Ed1ZDCPSoJHO_guj5ACLcB/s320/FPKK%2B0000118775.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>"You won't find [me] quite the easy mark you imagine."</b></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Uq_47o8DsuA/WHbpNnWN2dI/AAAAAAAACGE/RUeIehBWdVs5tFGTg0UdxXB4jOFIRKzLACLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bmoney-580x443.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Uq_47o8DsuA/WHbpNnWN2dI/AAAAAAAACGE/RUeIehBWdVs5tFGTg0UdxXB4jOFIRKzLACLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bmoney-580x443.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>"What a sucker you've been, what a fool. The answer was there all the time."</b></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ORW8XCArkdk/WHdWscH64zI/AAAAAAAACGY/Myoq17jjDbUa7K5kRKRtwH4mRv8UdiIkACLcB/s1600/FPKK%2B7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ORW8XCArkdk/WHdWscH64zI/AAAAAAAACGY/Myoq17jjDbUa7K5kRKRtwH4mRv8UdiIkACLcB/s320/FPKK%2B7.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>{"Chest of steel! Back of steel! Shoulder of steel!"}</b></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hzMxfRbumpc/WHdhCTGT8gI/AAAAAAAACHY/6eihnn3QLTUYadDTJM30ygfnFmeFC2ovACLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bclimax1-580x445.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hzMxfRbumpc/WHdhCTGT8gI/AAAAAAAACHY/6eihnn3QLTUYadDTJM30ygfnFmeFC2ovACLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bclimax1-580x445.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>"And now...your time has come. Say goodbye to all of...this..."</b></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5HmKntz37yQ/WHdhOSLA7zI/AAAAAAAACHc/q6uaz6MSC_MVjOOMC4Qebt-66NNrZc5nQCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bclimax2-580x442.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5HmKntz37yQ/WHdhOSLA7zI/AAAAAAAACHc/q6uaz6MSC_MVjOOMC4Qebt-66NNrZc5nQCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bclimax2-580x442.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"...and hello...to oblivion!"</b></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YC_3hOZMkgs/WHdf7ZsOsbI/AAAAAAAACHQ/TSNUhSTiMqAAC_OFXPtdoCmae17sq0wawCLcB/s1600/FPKK-tura-satana-kicking-some-ass-923x552.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YC_3hOZMkgs/WHdf7ZsOsbI/AAAAAAAACHQ/TSNUhSTiMqAAC_OFXPtdoCmae17sq0wawCLcB/s320/FPKK-tura-satana-kicking-some-ass-923x552.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>"I made you, and I can break you just as easily!"</b></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fexLVQwZwsc/WHdl9Hvc1lI/AAAAAAAACHw/JCHh4-4gxmIhszL2JOnn2hogNZ0CrUP9wCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Battack1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fexLVQwZwsc/WHdl9Hvc1lI/AAAAAAAACHw/JCHh4-4gxmIhszL2JOnn2hogNZ0CrUP9wCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Battack1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>"And then she cried out..."</i></b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l0KbqFP5sM4/WHdniRuTbfI/AAAAAAAACH4/3u0ThnwQP_o1zNUib6dWcs8rUH0rw2ENwCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Battack2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l0KbqFP5sM4/WHdniRuTbfI/AAAAAAAACH4/3u0ThnwQP_o1zNUib6dWcs8rUH0rw2ENwCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Battack2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"STOOOOOOP!!!"</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l9NoT7iHkRo/WHdoPaUUplI/AAAAAAAACH8/2dGoNUIxU_0mD_oWXxSA_XDBhXvsg3JJQCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bvarladown-580x445.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l9NoT7iHkRo/WHdoPaUUplI/AAAAAAAACH8/2dGoNUIxU_0mD_oWXxSA_XDBhXvsg3JJQCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bvarladown-580x445.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"The game has been disbanded."</b></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6je6xOf6H6U/WHdo_cvoBmI/AAAAAAAACIE/Aw-tEXsg7uAl8nKnVsKkV99HM7fQlscBwCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bfinale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6je6xOf6H6U/WHdo_cvoBmI/AAAAAAAACIE/Aw-tEXsg7uAl8nKnVsKkV99HM7fQlscBwCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bfinale.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"You should leave now while it is still possible."</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wpEgrFGmQ58/WHdrK3nKSvI/AAAAAAAACIU/WGBDFtf1pJ8k8IDCBi-khuEf3rzcmV7IQCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bvegdead-580x445.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wpEgrFGmQ58/WHdrK3nKSvI/AAAAAAAACIU/WGBDFtf1pJ8k8IDCBi-khuEf3rzcmV7IQCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bvegdead-580x445.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><i>"And crawling...on the planet's face..."</i></b></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Uq_47o8DsuA/WHbpNnWN2dI/AAAAAAAACGQ/kONh-mvOlB0ifCElI_iXfzfRhqpICO75wCEw/s1600/FPKK%2Bmoney-580x443.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Uq_47o8DsuA/WHbpNnWN2dI/AAAAAAAACGQ/kONh-mvOlB0ifCElI_iXfzfRhqpICO75wCEw/s320/FPKK%2Bmoney-580x443.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><i>"...some insects...called the human race..."</i></b></div>
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<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p43Tuq7eMXI/WHbojpTC1SI/AAAAAAAACGQ/YvhScCuuYNQyQ031fThVOkqv1swGaakygCEw/s1600/FPKK%2Bvictim-580x445.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p43Tuq7eMXI/WHbojpTC1SI/AAAAAAAACGQ/YvhScCuuYNQyQ031fThVOkqv1swGaakygCEw/s320/FPKK%2Bvictim-580x445.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
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</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><i>"...lost in time..."</i></b></div>
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<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
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</div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IK2lM48voQU/WHdsC9etjcI/AAAAAAAACIg/zO-JUk5HrHMTtUp30AfnwVda0BJi0CoIQCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bdeadhaji-580x443.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IK2lM48voQU/WHdsC9etjcI/AAAAAAAACIg/zO-JUk5HrHMTtUp30AfnwVda0BJi0CoIQCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bdeadhaji-580x443.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><i><br />"...lost in space..."</i></b></div>
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<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tSTIUM3kvmk/WHdsY048B9I/AAAAAAAACIk/fTuoRyYyuso3UmRJuI0HR9dxDkn2vM7LgCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bend-580x442.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tSTIUM3kvmk/WHdsY048B9I/AAAAAAAACIk/fTuoRyYyuso3UmRJuI0HR9dxDkn2vM7LgCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bend-580x442.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><i><br />"...and meaning."</i></b></div>
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<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x2eUnvqniHU/WHdskK0oxrI/AAAAAAAACIo/FD9gaJt1rtkUBAYssFBADAFH6SE0Vfx4wCLcB/s1600/FPKK%2Bclose-580x447.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x2eUnvqniHU/WHdskK0oxrI/AAAAAAAACIo/FD9gaJt1rtkUBAYssFBADAFH6SE0Vfx4wCLcB/s320/FPKK%2Bclose-580x447.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>"Meeeean-iiiing..."</i></b></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">acknowledgements to blogger/Tweeter @jodamico who, independent of me, previously had <a href="http://shotcontext.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-dinner-party.html">a similar inkling</a>, and to Al Ewing and Sarah Peploe at Freaky Trigger, where <a href="http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2013/02/welcome-to-violence-faster-pussycat-kill-kill/">many of the best images</a> for this essay came from</span>Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319363792379191152.post-67277386844881756402017-01-10T00:30:00.005-08:002021-07-26T01:54:03.056-07:00"Tell them they can laugh at me"<p></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yT4YQk_3_tw/YP5l7O-mVqI/AAAAAAAADWI/7t0k9h_XIWw3Vgxo9BzE2M-NRoFO29IDgCLcBGAsYHQ/s628/BOWIE-header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="109" data-original-width="628" height="70" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yT4YQk_3_tw/YP5l7O-mVqI/AAAAAAAADWI/7t0k9h_XIWw3Vgxo9BzE2M-NRoFO29IDgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h70/BOWIE-header.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /> </p><p style="clear: both;"><b>On this first anniversary of the passing of David Bowie, a loss still felt profoundly by all of us here at Night Flight, we’re taking an opportunity to reflect on his underappreciated capacity for self-deprecation and comedy.</b></p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p></p><p style="clear: both;">David Bowie constantly tried new things, resisted coasting on familiar credits, and earned enormous respect that continues in his absence. He took his artistic process very seriously.</p><p></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Ta4iMK-GRg/YP5na3ZvXCI/AAAAAAAADWU/uqCbhJpaCkkNQR0AMHcAUqHQKHs8GRUKwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1771/BOWIE-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1312" data-original-width="1771" height="296" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Ta4iMK-GRg/YP5na3ZvXCI/AAAAAAAADWU/uqCbhJpaCkkNQR0AMHcAUqHQKHs8GRUKwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h296/BOWIE-1.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">What he rarely took seriously was himself. In his music videos, in movie cameos, and in the media, he exercised comic gifts that delivered big laughs, often at his own expense.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">In the formative years of his career, Bowie compensated for his intense shyness by disappearing into his stage personas and substance abuse. He spent a long sojourn in Berlin to kick his addictions and find perspective, and emerged in the ‘80s with a more positive demeanor.</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6sr6_eqE8Sk/YP5opcepZ-I/AAAAAAAADWg/ED8hcen_GOo4xKxtwRRcND-JZA2i7dJcQCLcBGAsYHQ/s691/BOWIE-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="691" height="279" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6sr6_eqE8Sk/YP5opcepZ-I/AAAAAAAADWg/ED8hcen_GOo4xKxtwRRcND-JZA2i7dJcQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h279/BOWIE-2.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A key incident that shaped this philosophical turn took place as he was making the video for “Ashes to Ashes” in 1980 with director David Mallet. Bowie recounted the story to technician <a href="https://www.facebook.com/michael.dignum.1/posts/10153309716274071">Michael Dignum</a> during a break in filming for the <a href="https://vimeo.com/179079639">“Miracle Goodnight”</a> video from <i>Blackstar</i>:</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><blockquote><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>“[I] had quite the attitude as a young pop star, it’s easy to get caught up in the hype. It changes you. So I was on the set [of] ‘Ashes to Ashes’… I’m dressed from head to toe in a clown suit…I hear playback and the music starts. So off I go, I start singing and walking, but as soon as I do this old geezer with an old dog walks right between me and the camera…knowing this is gonna take a while I walked past the old guy and sat next to camera in my full costume waiting for him to pass. As he is walking by camera, the director said, ‘Excuse me, [sir] do you know who this is?’ The old guy looks at me from bottom to top and looks back to the director and said, ‘Of course I do! It’s some cunt in a clown suit.’ That was a huge moment for me, it put me back in my place and made me realize, yes, I’m just a cunt in a clown suit. I think about that old guy all the time.”</i></p></blockquote><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">Bowie proceeded to engage in what the British call “taking the piss out” of himself for years thereafter.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">With director Julien Temple, he conceived a twenty minute short, <i>Jazzin’ for Blue Jean</i>, where he played both a hapless pickup artist trying to woo a resistant girl, and her favorite rock star, “Screaming Lord Byron,” a stand-in for himself.</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DXvAaNcXNzI" width="320" youtube-src-id="DXvAaNcXNzI"></iframe><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">There are frequent jokes about Bowie’s real-life bad behavior, and in one instance, the would-be suitor insults Byron with, <i>“Your record sleeves are better than your songs!”</i> The video won a Grammy for Best Short Form Video in 1985.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">That same year, Bowie played a sleazy hitman in John Landis’ comic mystery <i>Into the Night</i>. In the film, he has a knock-down fight with a bodyguard played by rockabilly pioneer Carl Perkins, a sequence that surely amused him since, as a teenager, he had been inspired to be a musician by listening to 45s by Perkins and his contemporaries.</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QF-HRYVdEzA" width="320" youtube-src-id="QF-HRYVdEzA"></iframe><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">Bowie’s aforementioned need for artistic freshness became a subject of his mordant humor.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">During his 1990 “Sound+Vision” tour, he declared that he was retiring his previous hit catalog from then on, vowing only to do new material in future shows. After the disappointing reception for his band Tin Machine and the solo albums that followed, he began to walk back that promise.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">In a promo spot for their joint appearance on the season premiere of <i>“Saturday Night Live”</i> on October 2, 1999, Bowie’s about-face was referenced in an exchange of barbs between himself and host Jerry Seinfeld on their mutual reliance on the tried-and-true.</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vsi5upqSu34" width="320" youtube-src-id="vsi5upqSu34"></iframe><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">It wouldn’t be the only time he fired his wit at another target.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">In 2006, he played himself on Ricky Gervais’ <i>“Extras,”</i> where, after being annoyed by the self-aggrandizing behavior of Andy Millman, he composes a song on the spot to cut him down to size.</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ezwXxvSmVRg" width="320" youtube-src-id="ezwXxvSmVRg"></iframe><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">When making the talk show rounds, Bowie was always an urbane and gracious guest, and often participated in sketches.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">Here he is sharing a bevy of ludicrous revelations for <i>“Late Night with Conan O’Brien”</i>:</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qjwJrFeHYuk" width="320" youtube-src-id="qjwJrFeHYuk"></iframe><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And, in this clip from a 1999 interview on the French Canadian MusiquePlus channel, he shared his love of early internet celebrity Mahir “I Kiss You” Çağrı:</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rBnlyMwJ2PY" width="320" youtube-src-id="rBnlyMwJ2PY"></iframe><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Just before the end of 2016, Bowie’s son Duncan Jones posted a <a href="https://twitter.com/ManMadeMoon/status/814010440401428481/photo/1">screencap</a> from this interview, calling it his favorite photo of his father.</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lG3XXbP19jc/YP5umr9I6hI/AAAAAAAADWo/rC5gdwg730ARFZoBLyEC7IXU8_T0aPuigCLcBGAsYHQ/s485/BOWIE-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="167" data-original-width="485" height="138" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lG3XXbP19jc/YP5umr9I6hI/AAAAAAAADWo/rC5gdwg730ARFZoBLyEC7IXU8_T0aPuigCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h138/BOWIE-3.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">Having a laugh was also important to Bowie in his private moments.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">He released a list of his “Top 100 Reads” in 2013 as part of the touring exhibition “David Bowie Is,” which showcased cherished items from his life.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">Amid highbrow fare such as political non-fiction and classics like <i>In Cold Blood</i>, he included the British humor periodical <a href="https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/viz-must-read-music-legend-david-6130803">Viz</a>, a <i>Mad</i>-magazine style parody of UK tabloid and music press with a punk rock bent.</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ap1TB9NIjY8/YP5wI6SAWgI/AAAAAAAADWw/lHWOegCiC4M2rQ5r_0tptS68X73oEh97wCLcBGAsYHQ/s620/BOWIE-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="620" height="346" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ap1TB9NIjY8/YP5wI6SAWgI/AAAAAAAADWw/lHWOegCiC4M2rQ5r_0tptS68X73oEh97wCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h346/BOWIE-4.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">While the creators were grateful for his fandom, Bowie himself was not immune from their scathing jokes, as shown in this full-page lampoon from the early ‘90s:</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nxDdKjuotn4/YP5xCVdFhjI/AAAAAAAADW4/HahhxuiY6ewMLupxtMbRhSeaFOz_2ImVwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1272/BOWIE-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1272" data-original-width="885" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nxDdKjuotn4/YP5xCVdFhjI/AAAAAAAADW4/HahhxuiY6ewMLupxtMbRhSeaFOz_2ImVwCLcBGAsYHQ/w279-h400/BOWIE-5.jpg" width="279" /></a><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In one of his earliest compositions, “When I Live My Dream,” he wrote, <i>“Tell them they can laugh at me / But don’t forget your date with me / When I live my dream.”</i></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QgIa8UtxX4g" width="320" youtube-src-id="QgIa8UtxX4g"></iframe><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Over five decades after that song emerged, it can be said he lived his dream to the fullest and happiest, and we got to enjoy it with him.</p><p style="clear: both;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both;">So today, though we’re sad he’s not around, let’s put on one of his immortal songs, and have our own Zoolander & Hansel-style walk-off, and imagine that he’s watching us and smiling at it all.</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1wf503WoaVA" width="320" youtube-src-id="1wf503WoaVA"></iframe><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Night Flight’s <a href="https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/night-flight-david-bowie-profile/573bf87eec63740d6700514a">video profile of David Bowie</a> from December 4th, 1987, features “Ashes to Ashes” and other dynamic videos from three decades of his career, and is available to watch as part of our special <a href="https://www.nightflightplus.com/playlists/David%20Bowie">David Bowie</a> collection at <a href="https://www.nightflightplus.com/">Night Flight Plus</a>.</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j6KrbsHY0dM/YP51Pj33YsI/AAAAAAAADXA/RhsiTnWwI0oZgPkUVa0c319u7wlatbfiACLcBGAsYHQ/s700/BOWIE-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="700" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j6KrbsHY0dM/YP51Pj33YsI/AAAAAAAADXA/RhsiTnWwI0oZgPkUVa0c319u7wlatbfiACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/BOWIE-6.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4HrAtmilUhM/YP517JsZBJI/AAAAAAAADXI/olsM5qW6agI06-1XQDeZk75J8fhsc86kwCLcBGAsYHQ/s625/MEH%2BNF%2Bcredit%2Bblock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="189" data-original-width="625" height="121" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4HrAtmilUhM/YP517JsZBJI/AAAAAAAADXI/olsM5qW6agI06-1XQDeZk75J8fhsc86kwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h121/MEH%2BNF%2Bcredit%2Bblock.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">(This essay was originally written for Night Flight Plus. It has been recreated in the style it was presented in at the site, and matched to its original date of publication. Tremendous thanks to Stuart Shapiro and Bryan Thomas for the platform.)</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p></p>Marc Edward Heuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07563779617157443811noreply@blogger.com0